Rogue's Sons
by EreshkigalGirl
Summary: UPDATE: The longawaited letter to Remy. The PG13 rating is for language only, but it's really no worse than most people use every day. The story involves a Forge experiment and two visiters from alternate future realities. You'll like it, I promise
1. What Just Happened?

PRE-A/N: Hello everyone! I do hope you enjoy this fic. It's a solo one, no Panther to help out, so it feels differently. I'm being bad and going against my personal preferences and uploading before I have finished typing out the story. Really even completing the plot, so I have no idea what's going to happen. We'll all be surprised. I hope we all enjoy this, and please feel free to give me ideas and suggestions. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, or all that other stuff. Oh! And I had to guess at one boy's name (bet you'll be able to tell which one) on , which has apparently been disbanded, so I used Remy's middle name.

THE STORY:

"Ya sure this is gonna work, Forge?" Rogue asked, helping Logan, Dr. McCoy, and Piotr set the last big piece of Forge's latest toy down in the Danger Room with some borrowed strength from Logan. "Ah mean, ya inventions ain't exactly known for they're reliability. No offense."

"Trust me," the teen genius said. "I had a few glitches in the beginning, but now I've got all the kinks out."

"What kind of glitches?" the Professor asked.

"Just one mouse that... the glitch was worked out," Forge blushed. "Don't worry! Now, who wants to go first?"

Hank, Xavier, Rogue, Piotr, Logan, and Kitty (who was only there because Piotr was) all looked back and forth at each other, none of them actually wanting to be a guinea pig for one of Forge's experiments. This time he swore that he'd made a time machine that could go forward in time. Backwards had long been accepted as a possibility, but forward was generally discredited as impossible to predict. Forge insisted that he found the loop hole.

The audience took stock of themselves and finally it was Rogue who raised her hand.

"All right," she sighed. "Ah'll take the plunge. Ah just wantcha tah know, Forge, if Ah die, get mutilated, or in any way damaged cuz'a this, Ah'll find a way tah see you suffer."

"Fair enough," Forge nodded.

"Rogue," the Professor asked, "why take the risk? No offense intended, Forge."

The goth girl shrugged, kind of embarrassed. She had been doing really well since Apocalypse had been defeated. She had really been trying to get herself together. She still couldn't face Mystique, but she was talking on the phone to Irene, and she was doing yoga along with her usual workout routine to help decrease her stress, and she was meditating for a half an hour a day. She was working on not being such a depressed, angsty, whiney brat. In her opinion, she'd spent way to long like that and it was about damn time she grew up a little.

But...life was still a big uncertainty for her. She didn't know what she was doing, and she wondered if she ever would. If she could somehow talk to a future version of herself, maybe she would get some insight, and hopefully know if she ever got a handle on how to work with this whole "life" thing.

"Ah just need tah check somethin' with mah future self, if Ah can. Maybe get some advice," she told the Prof.

He waited, pondering on whether or not this was a good idea. In a few minutes, he nodded his head. "Very well, Rogue. But we'll all be in the observation booth to watch over this experiment. We don't want a repeat of what happened to Kurt at the dance."

"One little mistake, and I'm branded for life," Forge grumbled.

"One little mistake?" Logan asked sarcastically.

Forge mumbled incoherently.

Logan turned to Rogue. "Be careful, Stripes. I'd hate to lose one of the few people I can stand."

She smiled at him. "Get lost."

In a few minutes, it was just Rogue, nervously playing with the Velcro strip on her left glove, and Forge in the Danger Room making last minute adjustments to the time machine.

"How far forward are you looking to see?" Forge asked.

"See?" Rogue asked. "Ain't Ah gonna go there?"

"Nope, sorry," he apologized. "At least, I haven't tried to go that far with this yet. I can only give you a window to the future. One of the mice I had saw himself in two weeks being respectfully buried in my parents' back yard."

"Was it accurate?" Rogue asked worriedly.

"To the day," Forge said casually, fiddling with a wire that then proceeded to spark and hiss angrily.

"Ummm..." Rogue frowned, starting to rethink this little experiment.

"How about twenty years?" Forge asked getting the arrant wire in control.

"C'n ya go that far?"

"I managed to get up to twelve years with my niece's puppy," he said. "Looked like the dog was still alive in twelve- or, will be alive, really, I guess, in twelve years. I bet, with a human, I could see twenty years into the future. It's the life-span that's the problem. I need the subject I'm trying to see to be," he beckoned her over to him and positioned her in an arch with wires coming out of the top, "in here so that there's a link to the future that I'm trying to see."

Rogue considered the time that they were talking about. In twenty years she would be thirty-eight. She wouldn't even hit a mid-life crisis yet.

"C'n we go fo' twenty-five years, instead?"

"You're the test dummy," Forge said.

"Nice choice of words."

"Sorry."

"Whatever," she shrugged. "Just, let's do this. Do Ah have tah do somethin' in particular?"

"Nah, just stand there," Forge instructed.

"Wait! What if Ah'm not in Bayville in twenty-five years?"

"Don't worry. With you in there, the machine is locked onto your genetics, so I can find you no matter where ever you roam to in your life," he explained.

The mad boy-scientist flipped a few switches, turned some knobs, and, when nothing happened, he realized that he forgot to plug the time machine into the outlet. "Woops." This did nothing to make Rogue less nervous. Finally, the machinery started to hum and a ghostly pale vortex started forming in the second arch. According to Forge, that was where the window to the future would be, where Rogue would see the image of her future self showing through.

At first, it was so obscure that she couldn't see anything. Rogue turned to look at Forge, ready to ask him what the problem was when the view cleared up and started to sort of mitosis. The original single vortex turned into two vortexes.

Forge was flummoxed. This hadn't happened with the mice or the dog. This being Rogue's first foray into time travel, she had no idea what to think, since she was already confused. She got more confused when an image of herself wasn't what appeared, but two pictures of two teenage boys formed, one for each vortex. But, this being one of Forge's experiments, the weirdness wasn't done yet.

Both boys obviously saw the window that had been created, and they started some prodding experiments of their own, neither knowing that there was a second boy doing something very similar only about a foot away.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Forge yelled.

One of the boys stepped forward and ended up in the Danger Room, surrounded by equipment and strange mechanical...well, machinery. Seeing that there was suddenly another person in the, to him, past picture, the second boy decided that he was going to come through, too. In less than two minutes, the teens were standing around wondering what the hell was going on, and then the vortexes closed behind them.

The machinery stopped humming, something popped somewhere, followed by an ominous sputter and a small flame, and then the lights in the Institute went black. Kitty screamed in the observation booth and clung to Piotr's arm. It didn't take long for the auxiliary power to kick on, and everyone could see again.

Down on the Danger Room floor, Rogue stumbled out of the arch Forge had put her in while he tried to kill the starting fire that he'd started with the time machine. She glared at him and turned that same annoyed, confused, very pissed off glare onto the two teenage males who were now standing where a forty-three-year-old version of herself was supposed to be.

"Who the hell are y'all two?" she snapped at them.

They looked back and forth at her, at each other, at where they were, and then to Rogue again. The one on Rogue's left was skinnier than the other. He was maybe fifteen or so, she guessed, and had brown hair that looked almost reddish in the florescent glare from the ceiling lights. He was wearing shades, and was dressed in raggedy jeans and a T-shirt with a light jacket.

The bright blue eyes were the first things Rogue noticed about the older boy, on the right. His hair was the next thing. It was two-toned, brown with white bangs, and frighteningly familiar to her. With that thought, a realization came to Rogue.

"Oh, shit."

The one with the shades smiled. "Hey, Mom. Lookin' good."

POST-A/N: So, are you coming back?


	2. Oh, dear

PRE-A/N: Omigosh! Everybody loves this fic! I feel so good about this. For those of you who haven't read any of the original comics, that's where I've gotten quite a bit of this idea from.

-Todd fan: (bow) Thanky!

-TheDreamerLady: So glad you came back. I hope this chap earns fave status.

-EviltwinAlix: I'm guessing you asked me to update, yes?

-GiniaTM: You are a sick little freak, you know that? Luckily, I prize sick little freaks. And, you were close in your guess. Very close.

-akaieko: I have read a few of the original comics. One of my friends is highly into the comics, so I use her as my source, and for general X-info, so you're very likely right about where this is going. Glad someone knows!

Ach-heh-hem! The story continues.

The one with the shades smiled. "Hey, Mom. Lookin' good."

"No no no no no no!" Rogue shouted. She spun on her heel and grabbed Forge by the back of his shirt and dragged him across the room, nearly barreling through the Professor and everyone else who'd come down from the observation booth to see what had just happened. They moved aside as quickly as possible for the flustered goth and her worried captive.

Rogue frog-hauled Forge up from the basement, through the halls, and to the front door, gathering a crowd of people fast enough to keep up with her. The two future boys were part of that crowd, the one with the shades grinning and laughing at what was happening, and the boy with hair like his mother's looking worried that he might have to keep her from hurting someone.

It was Remy that finally caught up with Rogue at the door and pulled her off of Forge before she could forcibly remove him from the premises.

"Chere, chere, doan kill him. We'll prob'ly need 'im t' undo whatever he did, an' he'll do his best work un-mutilated."

Rogue dropped Forge who, unbeknownst to him, had been nearly two inches off the ground before she let him go. He stumbled as he reconnected with the floor.

"Now, what happened?" Jean, one of the curious on-lookers, and ever the adult, asked.

"Look," Rogue pointed at the two unknown teens, "what he did!"

"Technic'ly, he didn' do anythin'" the one with the sunglasses smirked.

Rogue glared at him and started to wind up a punch. Remy caught her hand and she was forced to go for the verbal attack.

"Ya look like a damn idiot with those sunglasses on indoors."

He shrugged and took them off without another word. The eyes stopped her cold. Remy's hand became wooden on her wrist as he noticed them at the same time.

Forge let out a low whistle and contemplated. "Just judging by the two sentences I've heard him say, that makes sense."

Rogue, who had started shaking her head in numb shock, broke free of Remy's loosened grip on her arm and went to the nearest corner and started to have a breakdown. "Ah cain't do this. Ah cain't handle this. This isn' happ'nin'. Ah cain't-No. No. Abso-fuckin'-lutely not. No. Ah cain't do this."

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!" Logan yelled, stalking from the stairwell toward the group.

The newcomers jumped and immediately moved out of the way, not used to the sound of the Wolverine on the hunt. The rest just hurriedly scuttled out of Logan's path until he stood in front of the four that had ended up in the Danger Room when this issue started.

"Anybody care to tell me what happened down there?!?"

"There was a glitch?" Forge said nervously.

The Professor rolled through the rift that his chief enforcer had created. "Forge? I believe you said that you had worked out all the glitches."

"I did!" he defended himself. "Well, all the glitches that mice and a puppy generate. Maybe it's different with humans?"

"Perhaps," Xavier agreed.

"Can I ask something?" the other boy said, speaking for the first time since his arrival.

This caused several people, including Rogue, to turn and face him, also for the first time. He shifted his weight under their scrutiny.

"Of course," the Prof nodded. "What's your name?"

"Erm, Charlie, actually," the boy said, staring openly at the Professor. "And my question, just to make sure I got what just happened, is: what year is it?"

The Professor answered him. The first boy, name still unknown, looked up at the ceiling and did the math, while Charlie nodded.

"That's...twenty-five years in the past for me," Charlie stated.

The other one raised his hand, "Me too."

"You got a name?" Logan asked, turning the younger boy to face him and noticing the eyes. "Shit, another LeBeau. Just what we need."

He laughed. "Etienne LeBeau, an' you gotta be Logan. I heard stories."

"Ah'm sorry," Rogue broke in, a note of near hysteria in her voice. "Ah cain't be here right now. Ah'm... Ah'm... Ah cain't be here right now."

"Rogue," Xavier said soothingly. "I think you and I, and Forge," he called to the inventor who'd been trying to sidle out the door unnoticed, "and Etienne and Charlie, and Hank, come to think of it, ought to go to my office and see what exactly happened during Forge's experiment so that we can devise a plan to fix it. Agreed?"

She took a second, swallowed some bile that had worked its way up her throat while she was having her breakdown, and nodded. "Alright."

"I'm comin' too," Logan growled, marching off to the Professor's office without waiting for anyone else.

"Remy, would you like to come?" the Professor extended the invitation.

Remy shook his head without hesitation. "No thanks, Prof. I t'ink I'll stay right here."

Etienne looked extremely uncomfortable for the first time since his arrival.

"Well, let's go to my office, then," the Prof said. "Forge?"

He'd been caught trying to sneak out again. He sighed and said, "Be right behind you."

Once in the Professor's office, Forge explained what he'd done in his experiment to see the future, Charlie and Etienne's times. Then he and Dr. McCoy brainstormed what might have happened to get the results they obviously got. It was halfway through the brainstorming session that Charlie broke in again.

"I think I have an idea," he said.

"What do you know about the space/time continuum?" Forge asked snobbishly.

"I know better than to mess with it," Charlie glared at him.

"Gotcha there," Rogue smirked.

"Charlie, if you have any insight that we might be missing, please enlighten us," the Professor asked him.

He got that awed look on his face again and stumbled with his words before he got anything useful out. "W-w-well, um, I think that, um, what Forge forgot was the theory of alternate realities."

"I di-!" Forge started to protest, then seemed to think better of it and mentally went over the information he'd used in his construction of his time machine. "Maybe I did."

"Fo' those of us who don't know anythin' about all that, how 'bout ya explain that in real words?" Etienne asked, slouching in a chair.

"There's a theory that says, basically, whenever you're faced with a choice between two or more things, a separate universe or dimension is created for each possible choice that you might have made," Charlie said.

"Like, if I was gonna hafta choose between the blonde and the red-head, a diff'rent dimension would pop up for both, where in one I choose the blonde, and in th'other I choose the red-head?" Etienne asked.

Rogue looked at the boy in horror. He shrugged it off with a shit-eating grin that was eerily like one of Remy's.

Charlie just shrugged, "Yeah, pretty much."

"So you're saying," Hank asked, "that somewhere along the line Rogue has been, will be, or is in the process of being faced with a choice, which will create you're two different dimensions?"

"That's my thought," Charlie nodded. "And something that's happening here, now, is what affected the time machine. It couldn't pick up on one specific future because it hasn't been determined yet."

"But then why didn't it do the same thing with the mice I used to test it out first?" Forge asked, still not sure why his invention didn't work the way it was supposed to.

"Oh, please!" Etienne laughed out loud. "An' jus' how many choices do ya think a mouse makes a day?"

"That was pretty close to what I was going to say," Charlie agreed.

"Alright," Rogue sighed, rubbing her forehead. "We now got a pretty good idea why the machine got two worlds, but why didn't Ah come through? Why was it you two?"

Both boys got decidedly uncomfortable. They flicked a quick glance at each other, then away. Neither would look at her, or anybody else. After a few long moments of that, Rogue got fed up.

"Jus' spit it out, wouldja!?!"

"Maybe because there was no you to come through," Charlie said softly.

Rogue looked at him and tried to decide if she'd heard him correctly. "Say what?"

"In my world...you died a few years ago," he told her.

She looked at Etienne. He was staring fixedly at the throw rug on the floor, but he nodded to confirm that she was no longer among the living in his world, either.

"Ah'm DEAD!?!"

"There was an attack from Apocalypse and his forces," Charlie told her, his voice drying up just at the memory. "You didn't make it."

"Apocalypse?" Xavier asked, the confused one now. "But we've just recently battled him. He's locked away again."

Charlie shook his head, his white bangs- in bad need of a trim- bobbing in front of his eyes. "Not where I come from."

"Where do you come from?" Rogue asked.

Charlie shrugged again, uncertainty in his every move. "Apocalypse reigns, Professor Xavier died back in the 1970's, and Father and a few other's have carried on the mission for peaceful integration of mutants into human society while trying to keep as many people safe from Apocalypse's forces as possible." (A/N: I had to guess about the date, so be nice.)

"Uh-huh," Rogue nodded, pretending that this actually made sense. "So, Charlie, here's the sixty-four thousan' dollah question, an' Ah cain't believe Ah'm askin' this- Ah feel like such a ho- but, who is ya fathah?"

"Erik Lernsher."

A chorus of "WHAT!!" echoed through the room from the Professor, Hank, Logan and Rogue. Forge was too surprised to say anything. Rogue buried her face in her hands and resumed shaking her head back and forth.

Etienne started laughing and knew he had to get a dig in while he had time. "Too bad the man's not here ta defend 'imself. Looks like ya dad's not too populah in this universe, huh?"

Charlie had blushed to the roots of his hair when everyone had shouted, but he'd be damned if he was going to let some snotty little gutter rat disrespect his family. "At least I know I do my father proud. It's pretty clear who your father is, and it doesn't look like he wants you, does it?"

That hit a nerve and Etienne shot to his feet, Charlie not a second behind him. They were about to have a row right in the middle of the Professor's office, but before either Hank or Logan could move to get the two boys, Rogue stood up and grabbed them by the ears.

"Ow!" Charlie yelped.

"Okay, dat hurts. Ow. Ow, ow, ow!" Etienne whimpered.

"Frankly, Ah'm not in the market ta be anybody's mothah," Rogue said to them both, "but if y'all two feel like behavin' like children, Ah'd be happy ta treatcha as such." She waited a moment to make sure she got her point across. "Now, then, how 'bout you boys try apologizin' ta one anothah?"

"Sorry," Etienne said.

"'M sorry," Charlie mumbled.

"Fo' what?" Rogue asked.

Charlie sighed and took the lead this time. "I'm sorry I said your father doesn't want you."

"Sorry ya fathah's such a creep ovah here- Jesus! Shit! Ow!" Etienne squeeled, his ear at the diminishing mercy of Rogue's twisting abilities. "Alright! Alright! Jeeze! Ah'm sorry Ah said anythin'!"

Rogue let them go and they both sank back into their chairs. She quietly sat back down after she was sure they weren't going to try to hit each other again.

"Well done, Rogue," Dr. McCoy complimented her.

She shot a glare at him powerful enough that, had he been milk, he would now be cheese. "Whatevah. Now that we know what went wrong, Forge, can ya fix it so these two c'n go home?"

"I probably can," he nodded with assurance.

This did not reassure anybody.

Outside the door, the chain of eavesdroppers related what they'd heard and assumed had happened, with Kitty sneaking the occasional glance inside. She'd seen Rogue release the guys' ears, and passed it along the lines.

"And I think she like grabbed their ears to get them to stop yelling, and then she made them like apologize to one another. And you guys got the part where that's like Magneto's kid, right!?!"

"Trust me," Tabby snickered, "we got that part. Loud and clear and oh so ew."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

POST-A/N: So, have I done you proud? Have I gotten your attention?

Seriously, feel free to feed me any ideas that may come to you to make this story interesting. I'm pretty much writing as I go, so I can take a lot into consideration.


	3. The Lives of Little Boys

Thanks for the reviews, guys!

-MJchick: Rogue and Remy are sort of together. Their friends, and he's pushing it, does that count?

-Rosalinda: They all died!!??!! I didn't know that. I saw a pic of Charles as a youngish adult and I assumed... oh, I'm so sad now. And feel really dumb for not doing better homework. Oh, well, sorry, and yes, he's obviously alive here.

-ish: No, no. She's gotta stay dead. Makes the boys' stay much more poignant.

-Ruby: Forgive me, but what does Rogue not appearing in the comics until the 80's have to do with this fic? OH! The "original comics" comment I made. I just meant that it's from the comics, period, for those who've only seen the shows. That's all.

-heartsyhawk: Good that you know Charlie. I got Etienne from a very small snippet I found about him attatched to , which I haven't been able to find since. I swear it's there, though! He does exist! He's not an OC! I'll stake my life on it.

-Panth: I was gonna tell you, but I forgot to. You know how absent minded I can be. Be honest, now. You know I'd forget to put my head on in the morning if it weren't attatched.

-bobtheheadlesschicken: Yes, it's Age of Apocalypse. Good eye, bob.

CHAPTER 3

For quite some time after the Professor had suggested that he and the others leave the room to help Forge fix the time machine, Rogue sat in one of the leather chairs in Xavier's office, looking back and forth between the two boys. Back and forth, a pendulum of speculation and disbelief. It was almost unconsciously that she started looking for, and finding, the similarities in the teens. She noticed that they both had the same nose, her nose; straight and proud, but a little snubbed at the end. She had a habit of scrunching her nose up when she was angry, she knew, and she wondered if they did that as well.

Both of them were fidgeting with their hands, she saw. Etienne was drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, and Charlie was popping each knuckle separately. Looking down, Rogue found that she had unknowingly been fiddling with the Velcro on her gloves again.

A second inventory of their faces drew her to their eyes. Because of paternal differences, their colors were obviously different. Charlie's were the same blue as Pietro and Wanda's were, that Magneto's were. Etienne's were the characteristic red-on-black that came irrefutably from Remy. But there was something about the shape of the eyes that looked the same. The same as hers, maybe?

The shape of their faces was different, that was easy enough to see. Charlie's was more square, and would probably get more so within the next few years; while Etienne had a more pointed jaw, and higher cheekbones. He didn't look like he ate enough. In fact, he looked a little too thin all over. Charlie only looked marginally better. He seemed more like he burned all of his calories being harried and nervous.

Just as she was thinking about her future, alternate sons' eating habits, Rogue's stomach growled. It just hit her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast- which, for her, meant five-thirty that morning, before her workout and weightlifting. It was now almost two-forty-five.

"Anybody else hungry?" she asked.

"Frickin' starving, yes!" Etienne exclaimed. "Where's the kitchen?"

Rogue looked over at Charlie to see if he was hungry, too. He shrugged and got to his feet. "Sure, I could go for some food."

Rogue led the way down the halls and into the kitchen, where Kitty, Tabitha, Jubilee, Bobby, and Roberto all huddled around the kitchen table gossiping. They stopped abruptly when the family entered. They'd been talking about the new arrivals, who Bobby had politely- and in code- deemed "Rogue's Guests." Bobby was big with code words and phrases to describe the sensitive areas of people's lives, such as "the Big Wig" for when Rogue had found out about Risty/Mystique, wigged out and nearly demolished a warehouse. Or, "Rogue's Little Vacation" was code for when Remy had technically kidnapped her. And now, "Rogue's Guests" was added to the lexicon of code for the Institute.

Rogue bristled, knowing that they had been talking about her.

"Whatevah y'all gotta say, go on'n say it," she told her friends.

Etienne had already moved away and was rifling through the cabinets and pantry for food. Charlie needed a little more encouragement. Rogue waved him toward the fridge and asked him to get her a Dr. Pepper while he was in there.

Tabitha licked her lips and decided to be the brave, bold one of the group. "Um, we were just wondering how you boys are doing here?"

"I'll be bettah aftah I eat!" Etienne called over his shoulder, pulling bread, chips, Cheetos, and Campbell's Tomato Soup out of the pantry.

"Oh my god," Charlie sighed from the fridge, holding the door open wide. "Real food."

"What about it?" Rogue asked.

Charlie turned to look at her, an expression of surprised joy on his face. "Do you know how hard real food is to come by where I'm from? Everything's usually processed within an inch of it's edibility, loaded with preservatives so that it will keep months on end once it's out of the package, and blander than three-day-old tap water. Real food is worth its price in gold."

"You want real food?" Etienne asked, walking over the refrigerator with the bag of Cheetos already open, and munching on them. "Here," he passed the snack off after shovling one last handful into his mouth, "herre's shom rill fud."

"Don' talk with ya mouth full," Rogue said automatically, causing the group to burst into giggles. She cringed.

The lights suddenly flickered, faded, and came back up. Everyone looked around to see if they'd done something. Forge came up the elevator a few minutes later, looking harassed.

"This may take me a little while," he said to Rogue's boys. "If I were you, I'd go scout out a room for the night."

Tabitha, only half teasing, started bouncing in her seat and waved her hand in the air. "OO! OO! Mine!"

Etienne laughed. "I'll take it."

Rogue spun to face him just as Remy walked in, not having known that the three were in the room.

"How old are you?!" Rogue asked the teen in annoyance.

Etienne gave that frighteningly familiar grin again, and said, "Well, mah ID says I'm seventeen."

"If ya've had ya fourteenth birt'day yet, I'd be surprised."

Rogue looked over her shoulder at Remy with her eyebrows raised. Looking back at Etienne, who was blushing a dull magenta.

"I have so!" the boy shouted defensively before shrugging and looking sheepish. "Two weeks ago."

"Happy, like, belated birthday," Kitty said from the table.

He smiled wryly. "Thanks."

Rogue looked him up and down. She looked at Remy and made some guesses. "Damn, if you looked like that when you were thirteen, no friggin' wonder ya've had a pretty steady sex life." A thought occurred to her the second those words were out of her mouth and she flicked an assessing glance at Etienne, getting ready to ask.

He beat her to it. "B'fo' ya even ask, I ain't answerin' that."

She nodded. It wasn't any of her business, and she couldn't even believe she'd been about to go there. What was happening to her? Honestly, she was acting like...like...someone's nosy mom. That was the last thing she was, Rogue reminded herself.

By now, Remy was beyond uncomfortable. He went to the refrigerator and almost forced Charlie out of the way. He reached in and got the leftover lasagna from last night, pan and all, and closed the door. He got out a fork from the drawer, and vacated the room as quickly as possible.

Rogue scowled at Remy's retreating back. As soon as he was out of earshot she mumbled, "Yeah, shoulda known he wasn' the type ta stick around."

Etienne shook his head. "Oh, he stuck around," he assured her. "He was just...um...'bout ten years older th'n he is now. But he was always there. 'Sept that one weekend when ya threw 'im out an' one o' the neighbors called the cops."

"What?" Bobby asked, wanting to know all the details.

Etienne grinned, although he hadn't found it very funny when he was five years old. "Yeah. I 'member he gripped fo' like a month aftahward that he spent his entire life bein' a thief an' nevah got caught once, but he gets arrested at thirty-five fo' a domestic disturbance. It was great. He got teased by the entire fam'ly up until-"He stopped, his whole face dropping. "Um, fo' a really long time."

Charlie cleared his throat, calling everyone's attention back to the real reason they'd come into the kitchen. "Hey, we've still got food here."

"Oh, yeah!" his half-brother smiled, forcibly shoving aside whatever had started to depress him."

The three family members made Dagwood sandwiches and loaded plates with carbohydrate goodies. Rogue had her Dr. Pepper, Etienne got himself a Mt. Dew, and Charlie was experimenting with his first caffeinated, carbonated Coca-Cola. He'd never had one of those before. After scarffing down half of their sandwiches in near silence, Jubilee managed to get their attention.

"So, guys, tell us about yourselves," she asked, taking that question, thankfully, out of Rogue's hands.

Etienne and Charlie looked at each other, wondering which one would go first. Etienne shrugged and pulled a napkin out of the holder on the table. He wiped his mouth free of crumbs, a very Remy gesture, Rogue noticed, before he smirked and started talking.

"Well, let's see. I mostly live with my secon'... third... somethin'th cousin outside o' Nawlins. I do some part time 'work' wit' my granpere. An' I generally hang out. Charlie?"

Charlie swallowed his bite of sandwich and took a drink to wash it down. "Umm. I sort of live with my dad; part of the time, anyway. He does a lot of work on his own. I mostly run things at the refugee camps and get food and supplies from one camp to the next, and sometimes I help sneak people around so Apocalypse's soldiers don't find them. Other than that... I have to put up with my pansy, pain-in-the-ass older brother who keeps trying to kiss up to our father even though he's at least as old as my mom would be."

"Pietro?" Roberto asked.

"You know him?" Charlie asked, his eyebrows going up in surprise.

"He's with the Brotherhood," Tabitha nodded. "And, yes, he really is a pansy-pain-in-the-ass."

"Yes, he really is," Charlie agreed.

Everyone one got a laugh out of that.

&&&&&

POST-AN: Did I make any big mistakes that time?


	4. Outside Opinions

-Rosalina: Noooooooo...Just bum my ass out why don'tcha? Oh, well. My bad.

-Panther: Bishop! That would be both frightening and funny, but it wouldn't work with the premise... or would it? How would he get there, Ms. Smartypants?

-heartsyhawk: I couldn't find his name or back story, either. Just that Rogue was his mom, and that his dad "taught him how to play pocker," so it was assumed to be Remy. I made up the rest.

-untouchablegoth: The details are coming, I promise.

-Ruby631: You'll find out why he doesn't live with Remy in a bit. Couple of chaps maybe. It'll be interesting. (BTW, "interesting" is my all-purpose adjective.)

DISCLAIMER

Remy retreated to his room with the lasagna and ate while having a minor emotional breakdown. Honestly, he'd kind of acknowledged that he might have had some illegitimate kids floating around out there. It was always a possibility that the condoms he used had been defective, or that he'd just been too drunk to remember if he'd used anything. That was uncomfortable to think about, but this was totally different.

There was a fourteen year old boy down stairs from twenty-five years in the future, and there was no way Remy could weasel his way out of some sort of responsibility, even if it was the responsibility of an alternate reality that hadn't occurred yet. Just thinking about it made his head hurt. But the boy was still downstairs.

His son.

That was just creepy. He was nowhere near mature enough to deal with that, he told himself. And...with Rogue...and yeah, she was hot, and fun to be around when she wasn't being very very angry with him, and hell yes he wanted to have sex with her, but the mere presence of that kid downstairs was implying that there was more to it than that.

Remy shook his head. He just didn't feel ready to let things with Rogue progress any further than two friends who could have a real nice time together. It wasn't... Etienne's fault. It's what he meant to Remy's life. He'd done that whole love thing before, and the phrase "didn't work out" didn't even begin to cover the mess that had come out of it. Hell, he couldn't go home because of it! It was pretty damn bad!

He threw the fork into the empty pan and set it on the bed. Stretching, Remy got up and went out onto the balcony overlooking what passed for a back yard at the Institute. After a minute, he dug in his pockets and produced his pack of cigarettes and his lighter- a good one that he'd swiped off St. John before switching teams. Just as he was lighting up, the kitchen door opened a crack just wide enough to let a skinny body through.

Etienne snuck away from the door, watching inside to make sure no one followed him out. Remy wondered how he'd managed to sneak out at all, seeing as the two guys were causing such a stir around the place. He had to admire the skill that took, if nothing else.

Remy backed up into the twilight of his room through the open French doors that lead to the balcony, glad that it was spring and a lot of the double doors were open to let the nice air in, to make sure that Etienne wouldn't see him when he glanced up; and if he was a son worthy of Remy and the LeBeau name that Jean-Luc was so intent upon keeping pure, the boy would look up.

He did, scanning the outside of the building to make sure that no one was there to see him out and about. Once he was far enough away from the windows that no one casually glancing outside would see him, Etienne just flopped down on the grass and tilted his face up to the sun. He basked for a few moments, then reached into the front pocket of his tattered jeans and pulled out what looked to Remy, from his vantage point in the doorway between stone balcony and carpet, to be a wallet. Remy was never wrong when it came to wallets.

Etienne pulled out two thin pieces of paper from inside and held them fanned between his fingers, like holding a hand of cards. He gazed at them for a while, and Remy tried reaching out with his empathy to see what the kid was feeling. His future-alternate son was too far away to pick anything up, unfortunately.

Putting the pieces of paper away, then returning the wallet to his pocket, Etienne got up, brushed off the seat of his pants and his back to make sure that there was no grass sticking to him, he went back inside.

Remy made a mental note to find out what the pieces of paper were, why they were important, and how that could be useful to him.

&

Professor Xavier sat beside one of the tall windows in his office, the tips of his index fingers steepled in thought, and watched as the sun sank below the horizon. He had sent Forge home over an hour ago, resigned that no more work on the problem could be done that day. The inventor would return the next morning, and the time machine would hopefully be fixed by tomorrow night.

Charles was deep in thought when Beast entered the room. Dr. McCoy paused just inside the door and wondered what the mentor for the entire school was doing looking so gloomy.

"Professor?"

The professor started and turned his head to see Hank standing in the room with him. Charles wheeled around to face him.

"Yes, Hank, what is it?"

"I saw Forge to the door," Hank chuckled. "Rogue was glaring at him from the rec. room the whole time. If I may say so, though: I think that those two boys are having a claming effect on her, especially young Charlie. I expected Rogue to jump up and try to strangle Forge, again. "

A wan smile creased Xavier's face for a brief moment, but the mention of young Charlie brought him right back to the thoughts that had been burdening him before Hank had come in.

"I've been thinking...it's strange that just one twist of fate, one decision can change life so drastically for so many people," the professor mused.

Hank nodded. "Mmm. Whatever choice Rogue is going through to create the two worlds, it must be a doozy. No wonder she tends to be in such a chronic bad mood."

This time the Prof. actually chuckled, but that hadn't been what he'd meant. "Yes, that could be one reason. But I meant about what the boy, Charlie, said; that in his world I was dead. Had I died, Erik would have continued with our work to integrate mutants peacefully into society. Instead, he's become...well, what he has become."

"Charles," Hank shook his head, huffing out a great sigh, "had you died, Apocalypse would have been released. I doubt that the world Charlie comes from is a particularly fun place to live. Not to mention, the kids here would have had no place to go- they'd be wandering around, lost, trying to figure out their powers all by themselves. Considering the problems we have around here now, take a second to be very frightened."

Xavier took that moment. To make Hank's point, at that moment Bobby skidded past on a self-created ice flow and crashed into an irreplaceable porcelain urn at the end of the hall.

"I do believe I get your point, Hank."

"Good. Now," Dr. McCoy addressed one of the more mundane problems, "where are those two going to sleep?"


	5. No

PRE: This is a very short chapter, mainly because I need your help. I'll explain in the POST.

-heartsyhawk: emotional wrenches. I like the metaphor, can I use that?

-skyangel2004: Yeah, Charlie is a lil' high strung, huh?

-PomegranateQueen: (bows) Thank y'. Glad you've come to read this one, too.

-MaidenGenesis: You're a good guesser.

-4Rogue: (If you even come back) Well... all that's very true. But this is my story; I like it, and if you have any pertinent ideas to help this story be better, feel free to add them.

-DreamerLady: Yes, Etienne's Remy's middle name. (Which isn't actually French, it's Provincial; not that that has any real effect on anything. I just thought it was interesting.) I got lazy and couldn't think of a better one.

-Panther: That's a really good idea, and I may just use it to get this story going. Thank you.

DISCLAIMER: disclaimed.

STORY:

"I'm sure they won't mind sharing a room over in the boys' wing for the night," Xavier said.

After being told this decision, the boy's had one reaction.

"I have to share a room?" Charlie asked, staring blankly at Dr. McCoy.

"As in, one room, two people, one of 'em bein' me?" Etienne grumbled.

"No."

"Hell no."

"It's bad enough I inadvertently share genes with this horn-dog," Charlie sneered, "I'm not sharing a room with him, too."

"Yeah, an' if I have tah be near him too long," Etienne jabbed a finger in Charlie's direction, "I may end up with a stick up mah ass, too."

"Oh, shove it, you little reject."

"Fuck off, losah!"

Everybody else in the room looked at Rogue to quiet them down. Rogue was wondering which one would win if they got into a fist fight. Which brought her to a very good question.

"Hey!"

The boys stopped their squabbling and looked over at Rogue.

"What are yall two's powers, anyway?"

Charlie's eyebrows squished together, totally not seeing the point of this question in relevance to what was going on at the moment. As was becoming usual, it was Etienne who actually voiced the question: "What has that got to do wit' anythin'?"

Rogue shrugged. "Ah was just wonderin' which one of ya Ah should bet on."

"Not to mention," Dr. McCoy jumped in, "it would be interesting to know who the X-gene manifests in the second generation. I mean, it's passed on through the father, but how it actually shows up,,,"

The boys glared at each other one more time, wondering who had the better power to claim mommy's love and affection.

END OF CHAPTER

POST: Okay. I think I know what Charlie's power is, but if anyone remembers it, please refresh me. If anyone has any ideas about what Etienne's power should be, I may just use it. Love you all. Go gimme ideas!


	6. Family Time

PRE-AN: I know, I'm usually better at updating than this. I'm sorry. College work is a lot different from high school work. You kinda, ya know, have to actually do it, or else you don't learn squat.

Thank you to everyone who suggested powers for Etienne, and for those of you who reminded me what Charlie's—or a character who was like Charlie in another 'verse—power is.

-bob: Thanx.

-Panther: Touch clairvoyance...will I use it?

-4Rogue: Wait, who's Luna?! I know about Greydon, but who the ef'in' 'ell is Luna? Wanda's or Pietro's or someone else's? I feel so lost... Also, I liked your idea for Etienne's power, and you gave me an idea for that whole, cohesive plot thing.

-akaineko- Your link didn't come through, where should I go?

-Maiden Genesis- "Ettie?" Oh, Etienne's got a new nickname!

-epona04: that's a scary power, chick.

DISCLAIMER: not mine, as usual.

CHAPTER SIX

Charlie and Etienne were glaring at each other as the rest of the Institute students—or at least the one's who were in the kitchen at the moment—watched on.

"Whenever I touch someone, they turn to metal," Charlie said. "This usually leads to their untimely death."

"So you cain't touch people, eithah?" Rogue asked.

Charlie flushed. "N...not really. I'm getting better at controlling it, but...sometimes not so much."

"Ha!" Etienne mocked. "I have complete control."

"Yeah, well, you probably have a really sucky power, anyway," Charlie teased.

"I c'n absorb energy an' dish it right back out," Etienne said. "You wanna hit me? Go for it. It'll be funny as hell when yo ass is flyin' across the room." He turned to Rogue. "So? Who ya bettin' on?"

Rogue smirked. "It'd be a damn close fight, Ah'll say that much. But it'd be wrong ta bet on eithah of ya, Ah guess. Conflict o' interests, ya know?"

The boys cast disgusted looks at each other, secure in their separate knowledge that his mommy loved him more.

"Well, that being said, you two still have to share a room," Hank cheerfully pointed out. "There'll be a door open in the boys' hall, just go in and make yourselves at home. And, try not to do to much damage to the room or each other while you're fighting over which bed you want." He then bustled off to his lab to punch the information about the boys' powers into a computer. And possibly make a Punnet's Square.

"Um, not to entirely change the subject, but—well, yes, to entirely change the subject--Dirty Dancing's on in," Jubilee checked her watch, "about five minutes, and I'm not missing it. Anybody wanna come watch with?"

There was a general migration to the Rec Room that swept Charlie along with it. Etienne had wanted to go, stating that both his mom, and his somethingth-cousin were big fans of the movie, so he had practically been raised watching it. Popcorn was made, drinks were poured, and the TV was flipped on to the channel Dirty Dancing was being shown on. Rogue sat on the end of the couch, Charlie claimed the seat next to her, and Etienne made himself comfortable on the floor, using Rogue's armrest as back-support.

"What's this movie about?" Charlie leaned over to ask Rogue.

"Love, sex, and a whole lotta dancin'," Rogue answered. "Just go with it, and enjoy,"

Roberto went to the light switch and flipped the tiny lever down, making it more like a theater. Everybody got comfortable, adjusting in their seats and making the last grabs for snacks and drinks, then quieted down as the movie started. "'It was the summer everybody called me Baby, and I didn't think to mind.'"

It started off well, but in the Xavier Institute, all moves turned into the Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were lines in the movie that everyone said. "I carried a watermelon." And there were certain call-backs that were adhered to. "Those aren't watermelons! They're barely oranges!" The line between RHPS and Dirty Dancing blurred terribly when Tabitha stated to make come-hither motions to Etienne during one scene, substituted "Baay-bay! My sweet baby!" for "E-e-e—tie! My sweet Ettie! You're the one!"

This started a round of giggles, Tabby being told to shut up, and someone breaking out with: "When Ettie said he didn't like his teddy, you knew he was a no-good kid! But when he threatened your life with a switchblade knife-" bringing everyone together for: "What a guy! Makes you cry!" and Kurt taking his cue for: "Und I did!"

By the time that was over, they had missed a good five minutes of the movie, but nobody much cared.

When the movie ended, it was nine-thirty. Lights out was at ten for the kiddies who had school the next morning, so most of the students went on to get ready for bed. Rogue was finishing high school by mail, so she stayed up with Charlie and Etienne for a while. Mostly they BS'ed, laughed a few times—mostly at something Etienne said—and Rogue told them about her life so far. She told them more than she told anyone else. They were easy to talk to, and they didn't put any pressure on her to reveal the deep, dark corners of her mind and admit that she was fragile. On the contrary, they expected her to be strong. They expected her to be, in short, the woman who would one day be their mother, and that left no room for her to be weak. She found herself liking the role of leader and protector. She realized that it was something that she might just be good at.

The next time she looked it was almost twelve-thirty. Even though she didn't have school, she got up early to work out, do that whole yoga-meditation thing that was helping to keep the extra psyche's behind the nice wall she had built for them in her brain, and take a long run around the Institute grounds. So Rogue told the boys that she needed some sleep and went off to bed, calling her goodnights over her shoulder.

"'Night, Charlie! 'Night Etienne!"

"'Night, M-errrRogue!" Etienne said, catching himself before he'd said the "m" word.

"Good night, Rogue!" Charlie called back.

"Good night, John-boy!" the three chorused together.

Rogue stopped on the stairs, her eyebrows coming together. Both Charlie and Etienne looked at each other in surprise before they started laughing. There was no doubt who they'd picked that little quirk up from. No one from either of their homes had ever gotten that. Rogue chuckled as she resumed her climb.

"'Night, boys!"

Charlie went off to find the room Dr. McCoy had promised. In his world, it was always best to catch what sleep you could, when you could, where you could. The habit was ingrained, and he decided to go practice it, leaving Etienne in the Rec Room to flip through channels.

By two AM, Etienne was bored enough to head up to bed. He passed Remy in the hall, carrying the glass pan the lasagna had been in back to the kitchen. Etienne hesitated for a second, not knowing if he should say anything to Remy, or just pass on by. He chose the second option, not having the slightest clue what to say, anyway. He never felt his wallet being pulled out of his pocket.

After he set the pan in the sink, Remy opened up the frayed leather that was supposedly a wallet. Inside were two old pictures, creased in the center from being folded up in the wallet for a long time. There was no cash, no change, and no credit cards. At least the boy knew that much.

Remy pulled out the pics to get a better look at them He let out a shaky laugh when he looked down to see the first was a photo of himself with his arm raised, probably holding up the camera, a slightly older Rogue, sans goth make-up, and a boy of maybe about six or seven, with a few missing teeth, laying between them. They were on grass, and it was a sunny day, probably summer. Rogue had on short sleeves, and her arm reached out, encompassing the boy and Remy in her one-armed hug. They were all smiling.

The second picture was smaller than the first, and in black-n-white. It was a sonogram picture, and if Remy looked hard enough, and used his imagination, he could just make out a tiny, quasi-human form curled up in the center.

"Merde."


	7. One on one

PRE-A/N: Okay, a few of you seem to be having trouble following the plot. That's fine, though, considering that until recently I didn't have a plot. To quote Inigo Montoya, from The Princess Bride (and, yes, it really is "Inigo" not "Indigo." You can look it up if you don't believe me): Lemme 'splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

Forge had an idea. He built a machine that was only supposed to be able to look into the future from a window that was based on one person's DNA.

2- When he hooked Rogue up there became TWO windows, meaning TWO future realities.

3- The two boys from TWO different realities meaning Age of Apocalypse where Rogue was coerced into hooking up with Magneto and had baby Charles, affectionately called Charlie by his mom (at least here) (and, it was just Rogue that died in my version, and that wasn't until Charlie was already about thirteen); and a second reality that may or may not come about where Rogue ends up with Remy and thus their son Etienne is born.

4- The two boys are technically half brothers because they share genes with Rogue, however, each boy had a life totally separate from the other, with two different versions of Rogue.

5- I know it's complicated. I'll be getting to the in-depth deets later on.

6- I can't believe I just wrote "deets."

7- Twice.

-Ruby631 & EmeraldKatsEye: I hope that made things clearer for you.

-Karakin: No, no. Pietro and Wanda are Charlie's brother and sister.

-akaineko: it didn't show again!!! Grrr.

-DemonicGambit: Yes, there will be talking, but—more than that—there will be pocker!!! And I've been debating lately on whether or not Gambit's actually dead in Etienne's world. He was going to be when I started the story, but now it doesn't quite work with what I'm going for.

-Rosalina: She loves both of her sons, thank you. You're an only child, aren't you? Anyway, a Charlie-Rogue squishy mommy-son moment is headed this a'way.

-Reviewer (very mysterious, bum-bum-ba!): I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!! HA-HA-HAHA!!!!! I knew he was the missing third Summers brother! I just knew it! Well, not in that way that has actual proof or anything, but I had a strong suspicion. WAH-HA-HA-HA!!! You have made me very happy. )))))))

OKAY, HERE'S THE STORY CHAPTER 7

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!!!!

Etienne pulled his pants back up and did that stupid searching of his pockets fifty times, even though he knew his wallet would be in there. He'd been getting ready to flop into the borrowed bed, and denim—no matter how worn and soft—is just not comfortable to sleep the whole night in. He always said good night to his family before he went to sleep, always. But tonight he couldn't find their pictures!

"Where... shit! Where are dey?" His accent was getting thinker with panic.

"Mmm? What's going on?" Charlie started to sit up, almost used to being woken up in the middle of the night by a crisis.

"OH, god, shit!" Etienne hissed, pushing out the door and half running down the unfamiliar hallways. The only place he could think that the wallet could have fallen out of his pocket was when he was sitting on the floor in the Rec. Room while they were watching Dirty Dancing.

He skidded into the room on his sweat socks. He dropped to his hands and knees and started searching the floor, under the couch, under tables, in the couch—although he didn't really believe that it was in there. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Etienne kept searching for a good five minutes, tending to idiotically come back to the same places he'd just searched a moment before. His frantic movements were beginning to slow down, and tears actually starting to well up in his eyes. He couldn't find the wallet anywhere!

Remy stood in the doorway, having felt the panic and coming to investigate since he was the only one up, and because he figured that he already knew who it was. He decided to have mercy on the kid. Remy cleared his throat, drawing Etienne's attention to him from where the boy knelt on the floor, lifting up one of the big plush couch cushions for the third time. Remy held the faded and fraying wallet up in one hand, between two fingers, and waved it casually from side to side.

"Ya lookin' f' dis?"

"YES!"

Etienne sprung to his feet, dropping the cushion and bolted toward Remy, and only -managed to slide to a stop a few inches away. The fourteen-year-old was suddenly at a loss standing this close to a pair of eyes that were a mirror of his own. Remy noted that the boy was still a few inches shorter than him. He wouldn't be in about a year and a half.

Remy presented the wallet to the boy in silence, not taking his eyes off of their counterparts. Etienne took the wallet in silence. It was a long few seconds while they both tried to think of something—anything—to say to fill the quiet. They weren't quiet people. They didn't do quiet, unless they had to. Both would rather talk idly than live in the uncomfortable silence.

"Woulda t'ought dat bein' a t'eif would teach ya not t' carry 'round a wallet," Remy said.

"Why ya t'ink Ah carry aroun' a crappy one when Ah could easily take a nicer one?" Etienne scowled at his obvious lack of imagination. "Somebody gets a look at dat t'ing an' knows Ah ain't got no money ta spare. Ah jus' keep it so the pictures doan get too messed up; dirty an' stuff."

The scowl kind of creeped Remy out. It was just weird seeing so Rogue a look in a younger version of his own face. Creepy creepy creepy.

Remy shrugged one shoulder. The only thing left that he could think of to say was the question that had been slowly grinding at his mind, even though he thought he already knew the answer. "Why ya carryin' a sonogram picture? Doan tell me ya got a kid in the oven at only fo'teen."

Etienne's face got a very careful, fragile look, as though only a glass covering was keeping what he was feeling inside instead of showing it. He still couldn't hide his emotions very well. "Non. That woulda been mah little brothah or sistah. It was still too early ta tell." He shrugged, going for an indifferent air and failing badly. Big fat F.

Remy digested that. Especially the "woulda been" part. It would have been his son or daughter. But Rogue had died before the doctors could even tell the sex of the baby. Where was he in all this?

Etienne looked down at his feet. He studied the hole in the toe of his right sock for a minute. Then he got an idea that—he hoped—would make this stupid, weird, completely un-fun silence go away, and he'd get some questions of his own answered.

"Hey, got a deck o' cards?"

Even half distracted, Remy raised a derogatory eyebrow. He gave his son a look that said 'Of course I have a deck of cards. Who do you think you're talking to?'

"So...wanna play?"

"Poker?" Remy asked, almost surprised.

"Naw, Old Maid." Etienne rolled his eyes.

"You know how ta play?" Remy asked.

"You taught me," the boy said. He frowned in thought. "Or, you will teach me. Will had taught me? Dere should be a hand book f' speakin' in future-past tense."

Remy chuckled. "What were ya plannin' on bettin'? Not like ya got a whole lot ta spend—ya said so yo'self."

"Informaiton," Etienne grinned. "Ah win, you give me info. You win, I tell you somethin'." He smiled as charmingly as he knew how—a cute, almost impish adaptation of the one Remy could paint on his face. "Come on, now. Ya know ya diein' ta know what'll happen. Ah wanna know what she's like now."

"Who?" Remy's eyebrows went slightly together, then arched upwards. "Rogue?!"

"Who else?"

"Why?"

Etienne shrugged again, but this time it was something to do while he thought of a way to put what he needed. "It's jus'... Ah only know about when she was already a grown-up, an' mature, an', ya know, my mom. Ah doan know who this Rogue is. Ah jus' wanna know."

Remy started to say that there wasn't that much to tell, then he caught himself. How much about her did he really know? He knew about her mom, and her brother. He'd heard her bitch and rage against people who annoyed her. He knew that she had a lot of anger and that she hit really hard, especially when armed with one of the longer works by Leo Tolstoy. Other than that, he didn't really know all that much. It just hit him that he was really sucking at this game.

"Let's hope I win mo' often," he answered his possible-future son.

&&&

Charlie was up wandering around in his boxers and long-sleeved undershirt. He had gone off looking for Etienne after the younger teen had rushed from the room. It had taken him a moment to realize that missiles weren't being shot in the air, and there were no screaming refugees that needed to be saved. He'd taken a deep breath when he remembered where he was, then set out to see what had spooked the kid.

However, Charlie was now lost in the unknown mansion. He knew he should have paid more attention to where he was going when he'd gone up to bed, but he hadn't. Well, damn.

It must have been a night for not being able to sleep. Rogue was going down to the kitchen to get a drink of water, hoping that it would do whatever drinking a glass of water was supposed to do to get you to sleep. She found Charlie in one of the halls near the little-used library.

"Charlie?"

He started and spun to face her. His breath eased out when he recognized her. His shoulders relaxed back down to where they were supposed to be, instead of up near his neck.

"Boy, yo' really high-strung, ya know that?" she teased mildly, her thick night-time accent dripping over her words like melted butter.

It was dark in the hallway, so she couldn't see his embarrassed blush. "I just try to be ready for the next attack. Whenever it's quiet for too long, something bad is probably about to happen soon."

Man, did that sound like something she'd say. Rogue shook her head in unfortunate recognition of that little piece of herself she must have passed on, only to nurtured by the tense environment he'd grown up in. Just the short time that Apocalypse had been out in the world a few months ago had been tense enough. Being raised where that was a quiet period would have made even the most easy-going person jumpy.

"Ah was gonna go ta the kitchen an' get a drink," she told him. "Why don' ya come with, get some watah, an' then Ah'll help ya fig-yuh out where yo room is."

At that, Charlie remembered why he'd been wandering around in the first place. "Have you seen Etienne? He was freaking about something, then ran out of the room. I went to look for him."

"That's sweet, Char," Rogue smiled, waving for him to follow her. "But Ah'm sure Ettie'll be able ta find his way back eventually. Even you woulda gotten back to yo room eventually."

Charlie frowned at her, falling in step.

&&&

Etienne smirked and leaned back in the leather arm chair in the Rec. Room, his three jacks and two eights fanned out on the coffee table. "Cough it up."

"Sorry ta disappoint ya," Remy said. He flashed his four queens and one ten, and he enjoyed watching the kid's face go from smug and confident, to surprised, and then to pissed in the time it took to blink. "Now den...Let's see...Oh. I got a good one. Where you an accident?"

Etienne snorted, his arms crossed over his chest as he slouched in the chair, a sulky expression on his face. "Yeah, technically. She got knocked up, ya tried ta make an honest woman of her, she got pissed cuz she figured you were only proposin' because she was pregnant. After a while, you convinced her that you were gonna propose soon anyway, since Scare-a Bella finally gave ya the divorce-"

"She what!?!" Remy asked excitedly. He could hardly believe his ears. "Are you serious?! That's fab-fuckin'-tastic!!!" The knowledge that he'd one day have Belladonna off his back made him very happy.

Etienne rolled his eyes and set further back into his sulking.

&&&

After getting their stomachs aqua-filled, Rogue led Charlie back up to the boys' wing. They looked for Charlie and Etienne's temporary rooms together.

"So...why are you up?" Charlie asked her.

Rogue shrugged and looked down. "Ah had this really weird dream that woke me up. Not scary or anythin', just really weird."

She had been in this weird fun house maze of mirrors. She kept looking for someone in the maze, but she couldn't remember—even in the dream—who she was looking for. She kept getting distracted by all of the faces in the mirrors that were supposed to be her, but weren't. Most were just flat out other people, but the freakiest ones were the ones that looked the most like her. As soon as she got distracted by one of the mirrors, though, this voice from further on in the maze would call to her, telling her to hurry up, to come and get the person who was calling. And for a moment she would remember who she was looking for, but then it was gone again and she kept getting side-tracked.

She shook her head again, this time to try and clear away the strange images behind her eyes that were imitating translucent flags on a windy day—flapping wildly, enticing her to look, without letting her see the real picture.

By that time, they'd found the room. They stopped and looked at each other. Rogue nodded toward the room. Charlie nodded back.

"'Night. Again," Rogue said.

"Good night," Charlie said.

Just as he moved to go in, and Rogue had already taken a step away, she turned and called him back. "Hey, Charlie?" Her forehead creased with a hesitant look, her eyebrows slightly drawn in.

"Yeah?"

"Um...was...will Ah be a good mom?" Rogue asked quietly, looking him in the eye to demand an honest answer.

Charlie gave the question the consideration that it deserved. "Yes. Yes, I think so. You were brave and made me feel safe when I was with you. You made me laugh when I was sad, held me when I was scared. You encouraged me, and taught me all of the important things I know." He shrugged, tilting his head a little to the side. "Yeah, you were—or, will be, I guess, a good mom."

Rogue sighed in relief. She hadn't known that she'd been quite that worried about it until the heavy weight of not knowing eased off of her shoulders. "Thanks, Charlie. Go on ta bed. Ya looked bushed. Wait!"

He stopped abruptly in the doorway, catching himself with his hands on either side of the door jam. "Yes?"

"Did ya love me more than him?"

Charlie let out an airy laugh and reached up to run a hand through his bangs. "Father demands respect and obedience. He doesn't encourage much affection. So, yeah, I guess. I loved you more." He frowned. "I feel disloyal."

She grinned tiredly. "Don't. None of his other kids love him, either."

This time, his laugh had more force behind it. "'Night, Mom," Charlie said deliberately, smiling.

She watched him go back into the room. Yeah, that still annoyed her, but she was willing to let is slide this once.

&&&&

"I get arrested?!" Remy demanded.

"One o' de neighbor's called de cops when ya'll started insultin' each othah's families at de top o' ya lungs." Etienne yawned and had to close his eyes, leaning his head back. He was out before Remy could figure out what to say next.

Remy huffed, hunching his shoulders. He sat back and sulked. After his immaturity laps, he got up and looked down at Etienne stretched out on the big, over-stuffed armchair, his feet propped up on the matching ottoman. He looked around and found one of those throws that Ororo and Jean had bought to give the Rec. Room couch a more elegant touch. It was soft and a little velvety when Remy picked it up. He unfolded it and spread it over the sleeping teen.

Remy straightened and shook his head, looking up, trying to see past the ceiling. "Dis is jus' so fuckin' weird."

&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#&#

POST-A/N: I'd like to apologize for this chapter. Or, at least some of the way it was written. I'm reading Laurill K. Hamilton's new book, and so I've kinda temporarily imprinted some of her style. That came through a little.


	8. Ties

PRE-A/N: Um... it's lateish, and my roommate has a boy-toy, so I'm writing and listening to Ani DiFranco, hoping that he'll leave soon so that I can get a good night's sleep tonight. Maybe I'll go curl up in the bathroom.

-Skyangle: Oh, thank yo so much. It will be interesting to see what else I come up with. I'm making it up as I go, so feel free to offer suggestions. What did Etienne tell Remy in the card game? What did Remy tell him?

-fudje: Are you calling me freakish? Yet you like it, so what does that say about you? As for Remy, If that's just a rumor, I like the rumor. It makes sense to my twisted little mind. But, no worries. It's not going to affect the story.

-EvilWhiteRaven: You're reading Incubus Dreams, too?! That's awesome!!! Are you done? Did you like it? It was a lot of character development, did you notice? But, hey! Nathaniel is a real person now, cracking jokes and everything! "Size queen." (giggle)

DISCLAIMER- not my characters; they're on loan.

WARNING- just a little one; please understand that I am very blunt.

CHAPTER 8

Morning came, and breakfast was served. Waffles were made, and there was every kind of topping and trimming imaginable on the counter and island in the kitchen. The smell of coffee and a fired griddle drew the students unerringly to where the food was put out. Even Charlie found his way unerringly to the kitchen. A few minutes later, Etienne stumbled in, rubbing his neck and rotating his shoulders.

"Ya okay?" Rogue asked from the table, only a cup of coffee in front of her, not up to real food yet . She was still in her flannel men's pajama pants and long-sleeved T-shirt that she slept in. At eight A.M. she already had her gloves firmly in place.

"Mrmrmr," Etienne grumbled. "Slept in the arm chair last night. Got a crick in mah neck."

She gave him a sympathetic grimace and scrapped the chair next to her out from the table so that he could sit down on the opposite side of her from the one Charlie had already claimed. Charlie had a big cup of coffee in front of him, proclaiming it much better than the kind they had where he came from, and a big plate with a king sized waffle, dusted with powdered sugar, drizzled with maple syrup, and blue berries thrown on there just for the hell of it.

Etienne got himself a cup of coffee and nothing else. He went to join his little family at the table. When he sat down, hunched forward, Rogue put a hand to the boy's back and rubbed a small circle. Ettie "mmm'ed" in contentment and smiled to ask Rogue to continue, which she did, while Charlie persisted in joyfully attacking his waffle.

Remy came in, all freshly from the shower, and headed for the coffee pot. He cast a glance at Rogue on his way in, thinking about the sonogram picture, and about some of the things that Etienne had told him last night. He still wasn't sure what he felt about all of it, but he had decided to at least not let Rogue get away with being a bitch and getting him to leave her alone from now on. He wasn't getting anywhere with letting her off the hook when she was in a bad mood, so why not push it and see if he got somewhere?

Rogue could feel his eyes on her, and it was still way too weird. She had to cut off the connection or else go fling shamelessly. Even if she did think he was hot, it was not in her character (A/N: ba-bump-tss!) to go pounce on someone and say "take me, I'm yours."

She stopped rubbing Etienne's back, much to his disappointment, and turned to Charlie. "Hey, in yo world, do you know ya sistah?" she asked, her accent thicker in the morning.

"Wanda?" he asked in return after he swallowed a big bite.

Rogue nodded.

Charlie shook his head and took a drink of his coffee. "No. She's out there somewhere, but I haven't met her. I hardly ever really even see Pietro."

"Ya wanna meet her while yo here?"

Charlie thought about it for a minute. He shrugged, looking down at his plate. "Yeah, I guess."

"Great." Rogue stood up and stretched, her spine popping. "Lemme go get dressed, an' Ah'll call around an' find out what she's doin' t'day. Ah'll take ya ta meet her."

With that, Rogue left the room to go change.

Kitty woke up late and found herself in need of a product that she happened to be out of at the moment. She was going to need to go to the drug store, but for the time being, she went to Rogue's room in hopes that her former roommie would give her a tampon to hold her over. And, having no sense of privacy unless it concerned her own, Kitty phased right though the door.

"Hey, Rogue?"

Rogue jumped and pulled her pillow out from under her shirt and threw it at Kitty's head.

"Damnit! Kitty! Knock b'fo' ya phase through a fuckin' wall!"

Kitty caught the pillow in her hands, too surprised to even think of phasing the pillow through her. "Rogue! Did you just stuff this pillow up your shirt to like see how you'd look pregnant?!"

"No!"

"Yes, you so did!"

Rogue took a step toward Kitty and jabbed a finger at her. "If ya tell a soul, Ah'll hunt ya down an' kill ya."

"Why?" Kitty giggled. "It's so cute. And besides, it's like natural to like wonder; especially with _those_ _two_ here. I mean, they're like your kids, Rogue. If _my_ future kids showed up, _I'd_ wanna know what I'd look like preggo."

Rogue rolled her eyes and scowled. "'Preggo,' Kitty? Nevah say that around me again."

Kitty giggled. "Kinda speaking of, do you like have a tampon I can use?"

Rogue went to her dresser and got out a tampon and tossed it to Kitty.

"Thanks!"

"Whatevah. Now, get out an' lemme finish getting' ready."

Kitty phased back through the table and went to the girls' bathroom. When she went downstairs, despite Rogue's threat, she decided to tell just a few people. Just Jean and Amara. And Jubilee. And Tabitha, because if Jubilee knew something, her roommate would know soon enough. And was it so wrong that maybe Roberto and Kurt overheard? And that Roberto would later tell Sam, and Sam would later tell Bobby, and then Bobby would tell everyone who hadn't hear yet? At least he had the sense to wait until Rogue had made her calls to Bayville's local Goth community—larger than most people thought—and found out that Wanda was at the mall that day, looking for a new beaded necklace because one of her housemates had broken her last one.

Rogue asked Scott if she could borrow his car, and then she just took it after he said no. Everyone did that, which was why Scott had said no, and his own plan back-fired on him. Rogue—in Scott's baby—drove both her boys to the mall, Charlie to meet his sister, and Etienne, because he wanted to come.

"One thing, Etienne," Rogue looked at him in the rear-view mirror. "No stealin' shit. Ah'll be pissed."

He frowned and hunched his shoulders in the backseat. "Sho, take all the fun outtav it."

Rogue frowned at him. Then she frowned at herself. Then she frowned deeper, because that last one hadn't been deep enough, meaning that she was actually getting used to the 'mommy-comments.'

They got to the mall, and Rogue led them to the Food Court, because both Hot Topic and Spencer's was around there, and those were the only two stores that Rogue knew Wanda would be caught in, and only under extreme circumstances. Mostly the other goth shopped online, guilting Magneto into paying for it. It was that whole "I-got-sent-to-a-sanitarium" thing. Wanda had progressed from wanting to kill him horribly, to mooching major bucks off of him in return for her not killing him, which worked well for her.

The three of them didn't have to look far, though, because Wanda was in the Food Court, eating an Arby's roast beef sandwich with curly fries (A/N: in case you wanted to know). Rogue herded her boys over to where Wanda sat, and tried to think of a good way to introduce Charlie. Without sounding like a crazy person, that is.

"Hey, Wanda!"

That was a good start.

Wanda looked up at Rogue and made sure to note the two guys with her. They were either new at the Institute, or from the Goth community and had a tendency to idolize mutants. Freaky, but not all together unheard of. Either way, her guard went up, and she pushed back from her table a little. She didn't think that Rogue would pick a fight in the mall—that was something Lance and/or Pietro would do.

"Can I do something for you?" she asked.

"Yeeeah," Rogue nodded, stopping a few feet from Wanda's chair to show that she wasn't in the mood to be aggressive. "Um...ya remembah that guy, Forge? The one with the metal hand that c'n turn inta tools an' stuff?"

"Vaguely," Wanda nodded.

"Well, he built a time machine an' put it in the Institute."

"Don't things like that usually go wrong in all those fifties horror movies?"

"Ya got no idea," Rogue muttered. "Anyway, the machine worked, an' we could see the futah, but then the future decided ta pay us a lil' visit. Charlie, meet ya way big sistah. Wanda, this is Charlie. In a future, alternate reality, he's your brothah."

"An' Roguie's son," Etienne added. He didn't like being ignored for so long. If he couldn't steal anything, than he was going to find some way to have fun.

Wanda looked back and forth between a blushing Charlie, and Rogue, who looked like she was about to smack the other guy up-side the head very hard. "You're shittin' me, right? Pietro's paying you? Blackmailing you? You're not really Rogue, are you? You're a figment of my imagination, sent by Mesmero and my father to fuck with my mind again. Damnit! I wish he'd quit doing this! I'll have to start hunting his ass again, and then where will I get money from?"

The tables nearest to Wanda started shaking as she unconsciously started using her powers.

"Wanda. Wanda!" Rogue snapped her fingers in front of the other girl's face, pulling her back to reality—or, as close as Wanda ever really got, anyway. "Ah was not sent by eithah Magneto, or Mesmero. Ah'm real, and this is too friggin' weird for anybody ta make up." (A/N: wink wink)

"Fine." Wanda leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her stomach. "Let's just say that I believe you—and I'm not saying I am—what are you doing here?"

"C'n we siddown?" Rogue motioned to the empty chairs at the four-seater table.

Wanda shrugged, making her jewelry clack together. "Fine with me."

Rogue and the two guys sat down. "Look, Wanda, the only reason we'ah here is cuz Ah asked Charlie if he knew ya in his world, an' he said no. So Ah called aroun' and found out you called Jodie before ya left, and she told me you were here. Ah wanted Charlie ta meet ya, that's all."

"Why?"

"Because she's our mom, an' she wants us ta be happy," Etienne grinned and threw his arm around the back of Rogue's chair.

It creeped Rogue out that that was exactly why she had done this. She wanted Charlie to be less alone when he had ot go home. If he met Wanda here, and they got along, then maybe he would have the courage to go find her in his time... and universe. So weird....

Wanda took a good look at Etienne and realized something. "Wait, wait, wait." She looked back at Rogue. "If you're his mom, and he's my brother, what exactly does that mean?"

"It means she shagged ya dad," Etienne clarified, ginning evilly. "Will shag yo dad. Will, had shagged ya dad in an alternate universe. This is so damn complicated!"

"Etienne?" Rogue turned her head to scowl at him. "Stop helpin'. Go five-fingah me some new lipstick in Hot Topic."

Etienne laughed and bolted.

"Be back here in fifteen minutes!" she called after him.

Wanda started cackling. "Oh, now I'm actually starting to believe this story."

Rogue grimaced. "Ah know. That's been happ'nin' a lot. It's weird."

Wanda smiled and took a second look at Charlie. "Do you talk, or are you so well trained that you don't speak unless Father tells you what to say?"

"I can speak," Charlie said. "I just didn't know what to say."

Wanda offered him a curly fry. "Just start talking. I'll tell you when I get bored."

Rogue smiled softly to herself for having done a good deed. Then she frowned, wondering what the other one was up to.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

POST-A/N: Sorry for the break-ins in the story. I really do try not to do that too much.

Love you all. Go review.


	9. Ettie

PRE-A/N- 'Kay, I'm a dork. Um, last chapter I wrote that Kurt was at the Insitute. I didn't realize it until I went back and re-read. Woops, cuz, he's not supposed to be. Let's just forget I even wrote it, alright? Kurt is not there. I'll tell you where he is later!

-Tsugath: No, sadly Roguey died. In both worlds.

-fudje: I don't wanna know? (whimper) But, Wanda referring to Rouge as "mom"...I gotta use that.

-heartsyhawk: She just wanted Etienne out of the way for a while. She doesn't really want him to steal anything, just to go away.

-sweety8587: Aw! (gives a chocolate figure of Ettie to Sweety)

-amanda: Have I told you how much I look forward to your reviews? Well, I do. They entertain me.

-QueenRaine: Attack by wild weasels? Oh no! I hope this was quick enough for you.

-Baudelia: First of all; I love your name. Your parents did very well. Second of all; Thanx!

-Yoz: Writing and homework is a touchy balance; I'm going as fast as I can. BTW, I love that you cackle.

DISCLAIMER: blah, blah, blah

CHAPTER 9

Rogue frowned, wondering what the other one was up to. She checked to make sure that Charlie and Wanda were having a nice conversation—although it mostly revolved around Pietro bashing—before she decided to get up and go check on Etienne.

"Guys, I'll be back in a bit," she said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Wanda waved her away.

Charlie smiled dismissingly up at her, and turned his attention back to his sister.

Rogue smirked and shook her head before standing up from the table. She crossed through the Food Court, threading her way between the tables on her way to Hot Topic, where she'd sent the little one.

Inside the doorway, made to look like a black leather bracelet with metal studded spikes, much like the bracelet Rogue wore on her right wrist, the boom boom boom of one of the newer goth/alternative bands rolled down from the speakers in the ceiling, and became channeled through the isles like artificial thunder, then was absorbed by the plastic, cotton clothing that hung on the racks. Rogue was glad of her five foot, eight inches that allowed her to see over most of the isle dividers. After a moment of scanning the store, her eyes hit on the cinnamon-y colored hair and shoulders that were in the process of broadening out that marked the shopper as Etienne. He was flirting with a tiny blonde, who looked almost fey with her hair hanging down to her waist, and the pale cuteness of her face.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Etienne!"

He looked over his shoulder and tossed her a grin, waving her over. The blonde turned her attention to the kiosk of wrist bands and arm-warmers as Rogue came closer.

"Um...see ya," the girl mumbled to Etienne, then walked to the other side of the store to re-join her friends.

"See ya, boss," Etienne called after her.

"She was cute," Rogue remarked, picking up a set of earrings to examine.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I love it. She's two years oldah 'n' me, an' she blushes like I'm the one whose takin' advantage o' her."

"An' ya aint?!" Rogue scoffed.

"Well..." Etienne grinned sheepishly. "So, whatta ya think o' this colah?" He reached out and chose a tube of lipstick from one of the trays fastened to the wall. It was a purple much like the one Rogue was wearing at the moment. In fact, it was the exact same shade as what she was wearing at the moment. "'M pretty sure it's what ya wanted, non?"

"Yup." Rogue plucked the tube from his hand with a smile. "Ah'll pay fo' it at the countah."

Etienne's face fell. "I thought ya wanted me ta five-fingah it fo' ya?"

"Ah wanted ya ta stop buttin' inta the convah'sation an' makin' me feel like a ho," Rogue said. "Figuh'ed the only way to get ya ta leave without a fight would be ta tell ya ta go steal somethin'. An' it worked, too, didn' it?"

Etienne frowned at her. "Yo an evil woman."

"No, Ah jus' know ya, that's all."

Ettie smirked, his sudden joy sprouted from the fact that, yes, she did know him. And only having met him a day ago. "Well, yo mah momma, so it's a good thing ya know me."

Now it was Rogue's turn to frown, although it was getting harder and harder to argue the point. She did know both of the boys pretty well. She was beginning to understand what made them tick, and it was becoming a habit to correct them and male sure that they were happy. It was, redundant, she knew, but weird.

"Shut up, Ettie."

The boy grinned and slung an arm up and around her shoulder. Rogue tensed, not wanting him to accidentally touch her and get hurt. Etienne picked up on that and pulled away slightly. He didn't let her go, but he distanced himself enough that he could see into her face.

"You always do that, ya know? Tense up like that."

Rogue blushed a bit and looked away, toward the magazine shelf. "Look, Ah just don' want'cha ta get added ta the rest o' the loud-mouthes in mah head, okay?"

"Yeah, I get it." Etienne nodded.

He let her go and moved away. Rogue felt awful; she hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. She just wanted to keep him from getting hurt. Why was she always punished for making sure that other people were protected from her?!

"Ettie?"

He turned back to face her. "Yes?" His eyes glittered teasingly, letting her know that he wasn't nearly as wounded as he'd pretended to be. Rogue scowled at him.

"Oh, yeah, ya just sooo pathetic, aintcha?"

"Kicked puppy." Etienne grinned, returning to her side. "So, big-bad-voodoo-mama, whatcha wanna do now?"

She laughed at the not-so-slick way of him working in calling her mom. "They got a Dippin' Dots down the mall. Wanna go get some icecream?"

"You payin'?"

"Ah'm the only one who brought money, aint Ah?"

"Yup."

Rogue paid for the lipstick, then led the way out of Hot Topic, down the mall to the little cart that served the best icecream in the world. Mmmm. Dippin' Dots.

When Rogue handed Etienne his little cardboard bowl of tiny balls of strawberry icecream, he didn't seem happy. He looked distracted, and a little upset.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Change ya mind an' wanna get the chocolate?"

"No," he mumbled. "I just...don' eat icecream that of'en."

"Lactose intolerant?"

"No." He made the male version of a giggle. "I just have some bad memories involving icecream."

The people in line behind them started getting testy, so Rogue pulled Etienne off to one side, casting a glare back at the line. She found a dry spot at the fountain in front of JC Penny's and they sat down. Etienne poked at his icecream.

"So? What's ya deal?" Rogue asked before she spooned a bite of her chocolate dots into her mouth.

"It's nuthin', really," Etienne said quickly.

"Etienne."

He sighed, his shoulders heaving as he slouched. "I just...don' eat icecream...cuz the last time I asked fo' it, bad shit happened. 'Kay?"

"Bad shit, such as...?" Rogue asked.

Etienne looked at her, silently asking her to drop it. He shook his head, refusing to tell her. He put his bowl of icecream on the blue tiled fountain rim next to his thigh, and watched the other shoppers mingle and disperse around him.

Rogue had a spark of intuition. She frowned and wondered if she really should just drop it. Did she even want to know? What would knowing do to the time-stream? But, in Rogue's opinion, knowing was always better than not knowing. "Etienne, does this hafta do with how Ah died in ya time?"

Etienne looked at his fidgeting hands in his lap and didn't answer.

Rogue debated on what to do now. She put her icecream down on the side away from Ettie and scooted closer. She brought her arm up and put it around his shoulders, hesitating every few inches. "Etienne. Tell me. Please."

He sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the skylight above them. "Fine. But don' tell me I didn' warn ya."

"Ah'll remembah that," Rogue agreed.

"We were visitin' at the Institute. Aftah dinnah, I wanted icecream. You were too tired to take me, so I begged Dad. He took me. I'd just gotten my icecream cone, an' there was this big explosion. We went outside ta see what happened, an' there was all this smoke comin' from the direction o' the mansion. All these fire trucks were screamin' down the road, an' Dad was freakin' out. I mean seriously. I dropped my icecream when he dragged me to the car an' practic'ly threw me in."

His hands were fisting and unfisting on his knees as he spoke, and his accent was thicker. "When we got back...dere wasn't nobody lef'. Couldn'a been. De Insitute was jus' this hole in de groun', an' dere were burnin' rocks an' dere wasn' anybody left. Dad left me in the car outside de gates, an' snuck in ta see what was goin' on. Since nobody could figure out what happened, an' he was de only X-man who survived, an' he was right dere, some people thought maybe he did it."

"Ya mean they thought Remy blew up the Institute?" Rogue frowned.

Ettie nodded. "Yeah, that's what they think. An' he's so guilty about how ev'rythin' went down that he almos' believes 'em. Not that he did it himself, but that it was his fault."

"Wait," Rogue said, shaking her head. "Ah thought ya said ya live with ya cousin."

"Yeah, I do now. Dad dropped me off in Louisiana, an' he never came ta pick me up."

"What?!"

He shrugged. "You asked, 'member?"

"Yeah, but whatta ya mean, he nevah picked ya up? What the hell's he doin'?"

"Don' ask me. I don' see him too often, an' when I do, it's only for a few minutes while Mattie's fixin' him up cuz he won't go ta de emergency room."

Rogue was really offended. What the hell was Remy thinking!?! Or...what will he be thinking?! She couldn't decide if it'd be better to ride back to the Institute and bitch-slap the idiot Cajun, then proceed to hand him his ass on a platter; or if she ought to write a letter to the future version of Remy, minus the bitch-slap (kinda something that needs to be done in person) and do the written version of handing him his ass on a platter.

"Hey? You okay?" Etienne asked her, noticing the look on her face.

"Ah'm'a kill 'im."

Etienne couldn't help his surprised laughter. "Don' do that; I won' have a parent left."

"Ya barely got one now!"

He didn't know what to say to that. It was true, so there was no use arguing it.

Charlie and Wanda found them sitting at the fountain, their icecream having long been forgotten. Wanda refused to get caught up in whatever the hell was going on with the other one. She didn't have a tie to him, so there was no obligation. She turned to Charlie and said her goodbyes.

"Drop me a line in your universe. This has been fun."

Charlie chuckled. "I will."

Wanda shot a look toward Rogue, a most mischivious glint in her eye. No one would have thought the Scarlet Witch had it in her. "I'll see you around, Rogue. Just one thing though: don't expect me to call you 'mom'."

Rogue's face contorted in disgusted. "Trust me, there's no chance o' that happ'nin'."

Wanda laughed and made her way out of the mall.

Charlie stood looking down at his two sorta-family members. They were looking sullen, but before he got a chance to say anything, Rogue started ringing. She was surprised, and reached into her pocket to pull out the little-used communicator that the Prof. had started insisting that they all carry whenever they left the mansion.

"Hullo?"

After a listening for less than a second, Rogue's face transformed into one that meant pure business. She flicked the phone-like communication back to its original form and stuffed it back into her pocket.

"We gotta get back ta the Institute. Now."

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$

POSTA/N: For those of you who don't like my cliffies, I say to you: too bad! They keep you interested, and they give me a place to start when I start writing the next chapters.

BTW, yes, I do actually have a plan for next chapter. If Panther ever gets back to me on an idea I'm running with her, then it might be more interesting than you know.


	10. Hostile Arival

DISCLAIMER- yadda yadda, bite me.

Ish-Yeah, I think I'll have her write Remy a letter. As for blown up, I'm trying to stick at least a bit to the comics. Sorta.

Sweety8587- Okay, you can eat the chocolate Ettie, and here's a stuffed one to hug. (gives a stuffed-animal version of Ettie)

Panther- I though of a way to work in the big gay black guy.

DreamerLady- She doesn't know all. That really would be scary. She just has really good intuition. And Rem's not an ass, he just needs to see a good shrink about his guilt issues. And, yes, I have a plot. Mostly.

Totally Obsessed47- Yes! Ettie lives in the universe with the Witness. Good eye! In fact, Panther has been pushing me to bring in Bishop, and I think I might. In fact, I did.

CHAPTER 10

Forge had come back to the Institute at nine that morning to finish up his repairs to the time machine so that it would send Charlie Maximoff and Etienne LeBeau back to their respective future alternate realities. It was now one in the afternoon, and he was getting grouchy.

"Why isn't this working?!" He slammed his human hand down on top of one of the metal boxes he was working on.

Something hummed. Something else whirred.

Rogue had unknowingly left a stray hair in the arch that she had stood in the day before, and, since the machine didn't discriminate between the DNA of a whole person and that of a piece of hair, the machine locked onto it and opened the portals. To quote (A/N: I'm pretty sure) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"There was a great, terrible silence.

There was a great, terrible noise.

There was a great terrible silence."

Only this time, the lights stayed on. From one portal emerged a scary, suited, masked, apparently sexless minion—that was the first word that popped into Forge's mind when he was him/her/it—carrying a big gun; some kind of rifle, it looked like. From the other, there was a tall, beefy, dark-skinned man with the letter "M" scarred over his eye, dressed like a futuristic biker, carrying an even bigger gun, and this one didn't look like any gun made in the current time period.

On a side note, had Tabitha been there, she would have said that, regardless of his sexuality, the big biker dude vibed gay.

Forge looked back and forth between the two men. "Ummm..."

The sexless minion pointed its gun at Forge. "Where is Charles Xavier?"

Forge put his hand and metal tool thingy up in the air and gulped. "Iyyyy....uhhhh...um? Who?"

The gay biker swung the butt of his gun up and slammed it into the head of the minion. The minion dropped to the floor, unconscious. Forge sighed in great relief and dropped his hands back to his sides. His savior then reversed the direction of the muzzle of his rather more impressive gun and pointed it at Forge. The boy's hands shot up once again.

"LeBeau? Where can I find him?" the biker asked, his voice deep and gravely.

"Um? Upstairs? Somewhere?" Forge squeaked out.

"Thanks." The man turned to leave, then stopped after only getting a few steps past the cowering inventor. "Forge?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh, I didn't recognize you at first." Gay-biker Man reached into a pocket in his leather vest and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Here. You told me to give this to you."

Forge carefully reached out for the paper, keeping his other hand/metal morphing tool up in the air. "Um...thank you?"

He nodded before striding off to continue his quest.

Forge stood absolutely still for a second, then ran to the console at the rear of the Danger Room. He started hacking into it and finally got a hold of Dr. McCoy in his lab. Beast went to warn Remy, and sent a psychic message to the Professor. Charles then had Storm call Rogue, as well as the other students who had gone out to spend their Saturday elsewhere, to tell them to get back ASAP.

Hank reached a hand out and caught Remy's arm as he walked down the hall, coming from the bathroom. He pulled the younger man into a waiting elevator, looking and sniffing around to make sure that no one had seen them.

"Hey!" Remy yelped. "Wha' de fuck?"

"Forge made another boo-boo," Hank explained.

Remy rolled his eyes and pulled his arm out of Beast's loose grip. "Yeah, remind me not ta put dat guy on my Christmas card list. What'd he do now?"

"Apparently he let through someone who is looking for you, and is carrying a big gun."

Gambit's eyebrows went up as he went into self-preservation mode. He pulled out a deck of cards from his back pocket and pulled them out of the cardboard box. He shuffled them a few times through his hands, getting the feel of the cards, then tucked them into different pockets, up the long sleeved T-shirt he'd put on that morning, and hid a couple in places that Hank couldn't even catch with his animalistically enhanced vision. (A.N: Which brings up the question, why did Dr. McCoy always where glasses in the comics and TAS?)

"So," Gambit asked, "dis guy say why he wants ta kill me?"

"I never said he wanted to kill you."

"He's lookin' fo' me, an' he's carryin' a big gun. Sounds like he wants my head ta dese ears. Mebe ya list'nin' t' a diff'rent story."

Hank shrugged. "Let us say that the Professor is not taking any chances. He has given me instructions to bring you down to the Med. Lab and put you into one of the safe-rooms in there."

"He's not gonna let me fight?!" Remy frowned. "I doan even get t' d'fend m'self? I gotta go hide in a hole like some mouse when he sees de cat? I doan t'ink so, mon ami."

Remy pushed the button for the next floor and slipped out of the half-open doors. Hank sighed and shook his head.

Should have seen that one coming, Hank, he berated himself. Good job. Jeeze! And you're supposed to be the smart one!

While Beast had stood there mentally yelling at himself, the doors had started to close. Hank finally realized this and pushed the doors back open. He stepped out and sniffed the air. Hightened senses were such a useful thing. In less than ten seconds Hank knew that Remy had run right. Towards the stairs. It appeared to Dr. McCoy's scientific reasoning that Gambit was going to go confront his attacker head on.

"I wonder if he'll ever grow out of that, and learn that there are times to rush in blindly, and times to plan a strategy of attack," Hank asked himself as he rushed off to try and catch the foolish young man.

&&

Forge got out of the Danger Room shortly after the other man had run off. This was good, because when the minion that had been K.O.'ed woke up, he was in a really pissy mood.

He grumbled to himself—or possibly herself; it was still a mystery. Then the minion picked up the primitive weapon that its master had given it so that the murder of Professor Charles Xavier would look like it had been the actions of one of the mutant haters of this primitive century. The Great Lord Apocalypse even had a group to pin it on, which was currently emerging in the inner cities and Midwestern farm-towns alike: the Friends of Humanity. They preached human superiority, and they advocated violent means to remove mutants from society. It would be no huge feat to have them accused of assassinating the Professor. In fact, one of the members might actually come forward with pride to say that they did it. It was all so simple that even Minion #122 could pull it off.

&&

Fifteen minutes after receiving the call, Rogue and the boys pulled into the driveway of the Institute. It all looked quiet, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

"Anybody got a plan?" Etienne asked. "Or do we just bust in there, guns blazin', so ta speak?"

"It's really quiet," Charlie observed, popping his knuckles. "It's always bad when it gets really quiet."

Rogue took a deep breath, held it for a second, then released it, just like in yoga. Now was the time to prove that she could be the leader that these two remembered. "Ever'body stay low an' keep ya eyes'n'ears peeled. Don' hesitate ta attack, but keep it a woundin' blow until ya know it's a bad guy, then aim fo' any important body part o' vital organ ya c'n think of."

The three of them moved closer to the front door, keeping to a semi-crotch, and spread out so that a bad guy couldn't take them all down with a single shot.

"Can ya actually keep ya ears peeled?" Etienne asked.

Rogue and Charlie shot him a sharp look. He put his hands up in surrender and shrugged. "Just checkin'."

Rogue turned back around and concentrated on the door. She reached out and slowly pushed it open, hoping that it wasn't bugged to explode. When there was no boom and flash of light, she pushed it so that the knob banged against the inside wall to make sure that there was no one behind the door to jump them. There didn't look like there was anyone in the foyer, or in the front part of the house at all. All was silent.

A noise behind them made Rogue crane her neck around to see the gate being electronically opened, admitting one of the cars that were registered to Xavier, and the students with licenses were allowed to drive if he gave the OK. She relaxed a bit, glad for the back up so that it wouldn't just be the three of them going in alone. A minute later, Kitty, Amara, Tabitha, Roberto, and Bobby climbed out when the car was parked, just behind Scott's baby, in the driveway.

"Where's Jean or Scott?" Rogue asked.

"They went to a movie on the other side of town," Amara explained. "They won't be here for another few minutes."

Rogue debated on whether or not to wait for them. She decided against it. They needed to get in there now and find out what was going on. "Alright. Ah guess y'all follow mah lead. Don' do nothin' stupid, or Ah'll make sure Logan has ya runnin' DR sessions 'til ya drop when this is ovah. We go in there, and we find—"She hesitated and amended what she had been about to say. "We find Storm. If Mystique is in there, Ah'll bet every good CD Ah own that she's disguised as the Professah."

"Lead the may, chicklet," Tabby said.

And so Rogue led them inside.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

POST-A/N: Look! Do you see it!? The plot!


	11. Battle and Bishop

PRE-AN: Things is getting' heavy now that it's the middle of November. Many papers and more stress. College is hard! I love you all, darlings! So sorry if I take so long between updates. I'm trying for once a week.

I'm really sorry, but I don't write battle scenes well. This one is going to be short. Really short. I'm sorry. Just...use your imagination.

-Ms. Rogue LeBeau: Burnt hamburger? Well, it didn't before, but it probably will from now on.

-MorningStar: His name is Bishop. In the comics he's after Remy cuz he thinkds that Remy blew up the Institute and killed everyone. No, he didn't really. It was Onslaught that blew up the Institute, but Bishy doesn't know that.

-DreamerLady: It was Panthrer who kept referring to Bishop as "a big gay black man," so I had to put it in there under threat of being viciously poked. I didn't know that there's a "Summers Effect." That's pretty cool. I will be using that, eventually.

-SickmindedSucker: I don't think she'll be ending up with either of them. Least not in this fic. Glad you like it though. Who told you about it?

-QueenReine: I'm sorry. Yes, they gotta go back. It might mess up the time continuum if they stay too long. Ettie might F things up so badly he's not even born. That would be sad.

CHAPTER 11

Rogue led the way inside the front door of the Institute. The boys, and the other students crept in behind her and fanned out in the foyer. They did a quick check of the Rec. Room, and the Ball Room—of course, there was never a ball in there, so no one knew why the room was still called that.

"Boom-Boom, you take Magma, Iceman an' Sunspot an' covah the lef' side o' the house; Shadowcat, yo with me 'n' the boys on the right side. If ya get in trouble...start screamin' an' blowin' shit up—pretty sho' we'll all hear that from anywhere in the house."

"I like you as team leader so much better than Scott," Tabby said, grinning.

"Thanks." Rogue smiled back. "Now get goin'."

The two teams split up, Tabitha leading her group into the Rec. Room and beyond, and Rogue walking into the Ball Room. Etienne was about to put in a witty one-liner when a gunshot went off and an explosion followed it from the second floor, somewhere near the guy's bathroom. They could tell this because the bathrooms have a certain resonance.

"Ours!" Rogue yelled, letting the others know to keep going; her team would cover it.

Kitty phased up while the other three ran for the stairs. They reconvened in the hallway on the second floor and made a rush for the bathroom, until the sounds of battle started in earnest in the other side of the house. The explosions that Rogue was almost certain she could tell were Gambit's cards changed position, as well. They were coming more and more toward the rear of the house.

Damnit! Stay put! Rogue thought. The team ran forward, clearing a corner just in time to see a silver jump suited person armed with a very impressive sawed off shotgun and a sight attached to the top. The noise of their feet spun the shooter around, the barrel swinging with him and locking on to the group. Kitty pulled Etienne through a wall, and Rogue and Charlie hid behind the corner to avoid the shots fired in close succession.

"Where is Charles Xavier?!" the assassin shouted.

Guess it's not Mystique. Rogue rolled her eyes at the unoriginality of the attacking bad guy. "Who wants'ta know?"

Her answer was another round of bullets.

Charlie touched her shoulder, getting Rogue's attention. His face was paler, but he set his jaw and had easily gotten into battle mind-set. "That's one of Apocalypse's minions," he said.

Rogue's eyebrows lifted. "That's not good."

Logan would have been proud if he had been there to watch. (As it was, Wolvie was looking for this guy, but was in the wrong part of the mansion.) Kitty came up from underneath the minion and phased his feet through the floor. This unsettled him enough for Etienne to use a glove and gauntlet from one of the 16th Century suits of armor to knock the minion over the head. Dazed, he let go of the gun and slumped to the floor. After another hit, the minion was KO'ed.

"Got him!" Etienne called, kicking the gun well out of the minion's reach.

Rogue and Charlie came from behind the corner and surveyed the work.

"Nice job, Ettie." Rogue nodded her head in approval.

Charlie had to agree. "You sure you can't come to my world and help with the war against Apocalypse?"

"That would be so cool," Etienne agreed. "But I think it might seriously F-up the time continuum or somethin'."

"Too bad."

The shots and explosions had not stopped, and now that one of the bad guys had been taken out of commission, the foursome rushed off to help the others.

&&&&

Tabitha stationed Sunny by the windows so that he could power up as they went. Iceman was covering their backs, and Amara had flanking position. When Rogue had called "Ours," Tabitha had grinned and kept her team going. She and 'Mara knew the girl could handle herself.

When they came to the kitchen, the sounds of things exploding was right above them.

"Where the hell's Blue when ya need him?" she mused.

Unfortunately, Kurt had managed to sneak off with Amanda today, so he was of no help. Nobody wanted to call and rain on his parade, so they just left him with some happy time.

The four X-Men found the nearest stairwell—remembering that you should never use an elevator in an emergency—and ran upwards. There was a loud crash, and the fighting was very suddenly moved downstairs again, as Gambit, Storm, and the unknown (AN: WARNING, I am about to be very un-PC) black guy from the future crashed though the floor into one of the living room—since the students refused to call it a parlor.

"O-kay, back downstairs, then," Boom-Boom instructed.

&&&&

Rogue and her team heard the crash.

"Kitty, phase us down with ya," Rogue ordered.

Shadowcat felt a lot like that mom in the commercial with the little kids hanging onto her feet while she walked down the isles in the store, only with her, they were hanging on her arms and around her neck. Kitty phased them down landing with less grace than usual.

"Ow."

"Well, you try landing while you've got like fifty million people hanging on you," she snapped.

Rogue got up and looked around one of the downstairs half-bathrooms. Judging by the wallpaper, it was the one near the Rec. Room. "Come on, y'all. Get up. We gotta go."

&&&&

After taking a minute to catch the breath that had gotten knocked out of him by the unexpected fall through the floor, Remy found that he had landed on a coffee table. Said coffee table was broken, and he was pretty sure he had a splinter in his thigh, and he could feel blood dripping from his elbow. The only bright side was that whoever that was who had such a hard-on to shoot him was just as surprised and dazed as he was. Possibly more so, since that guy had landed across the back of one of the couches.

Remy rolled to one side, finding Stormy just standing up from her fall though the floor—or, ceiling, now. Before he got enough breath to say anything, the sound of running footsteps came from two directions and converged on the living room. Rogue, Kitty, Etienne and Charlie came from the front, and Tabitha, Roberto (all glowy and juiced up), Amara, and Bobby brought up the rear.

"Shit," Etienne said.

Remy couldn't have agreed more.

The big guy struggled off of the couch and stood up. He was a trained fighter, and he had never lost his gun. In one fluid motion, he had it up again and pointed back on LeBeau as soon as he had his feet under him.

Remy was still on the floor, pretty sure he might have sprained his ankle now that he had a chance to feel the pain that was throbbing there. Seeing that he teammate was having some trouble, Tabitha flung a fistful of little bombs at the gunman to distract him. Bobby took the hint and iced his feet so that he couldn't go anywhere.

The trigger finger was hit by and optic blast. Grip painfully loosed, the gun was telekinetically yanked from the man's grip by Jean and Scott, who had just walked in the door.

"Hey!" Logan yelled down from the big-ass hole in the floor in the hallway of the boys' wing. Everybody in the room below looked up. "Anybody wanna fill me in on what's goin' on?"

Rogue looked at Charlie. "This anothah one'a Apocalypse's goons?"

"Not that I know of," Charlie said, shaking his head. "At least, I've never seen him before."

"I don't have any tie to Apocalypse," the man said. "I'm here for him." He pointed to Gambit, who was pulling himself up from the floor by holding onto the furniture so that he wouldn't put too much weight on his hurt right foot.

"What'd I ever do ta you?" Remy asked.

Professor Xavier rolled into the room, Beast at his side. Logan jumped down from the hole and joined the other two teachers.

"Chuck, you got any clue what's goin' on?" Wolverine asked.

"Not as yet," Xavier admitted.

"You're Professor Xavier?" the man asked. "Then if I were you, I'd let me go if you want to be alive in the future. You let me kill LeBeau, and you stay alive."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" Rogue butted in. "What does Remy have ta do with the Prof. diein'?"

"I second de question," Remy added.

"You kill him," the man snarled, "along with everyone else in the Institute. Because of you, the world I've come from is going to Hell." (AN: I think. I don't know. I'm guessing.)

Everyone looked at Remy, who was as surprised as the rest of them. "T'ink ya got de wrong man. I doan wan' de Professor dead, an' I kinda like de Institute. Ya know, 'sept fo dat 'no smokin' indoors' rule."

Almost everyone stuck up for Remy, Etienne loudest of all. They just couldn't see him doing anything like that. Logan stayed quiet, mainly because he didn't like to rule out any possibility. Xavier remained silent because he would have protested just as vehemently as any of his students now did, many years ago if someone would have come back to tell him that Erik would one day turn against him. He knew how drastically a personality could change in a lifetime.

Rogue made the connection, mainly because she wasn't protesting either. Not because she thought he might have done what the man was accusing him of, but because she knew he hadn't. She didn't pretend that she knew Remy well, but he wasn't a mass murderer. At least, she was pretty sure.

"Wait a sec!" She shushed everyone. "Professah, we got a guy Charlie said was one o' Apocalypse's minions trapped in the floor upstairs. Now this guys comes through, an' Ah think we c'n safely guess that he's from Etienne's world, right?"

"That makes sense," Xavier agreed.

"Okay, so lemme take a wild guess here...um.... You got a name?" Rogue asked the man who was still half-captive in ice.

"Bishop."

"Alright, Bishop. Here's mah guess. The Institute was blown up, an' that's how everybody got killed, right? That's why ya think it was Gambit?"

"He was the only survivor, and it was blown up by mutant powers," Bishop insisted.

"That ain't sayin' much," Rogue said. "Tabby c'n make bombs. Bet if she concentrated on makin' just one, it could be big enough to do serious damage. There's a girl name Jubilee who...well, she makes fireworks. But if one o' them things hit a gas line or somethin' it'd make a damn big boom. Or Scott has his eye beams. Just cuz it got blown up cuz'a mutant powers don't necessarily point ta Remy."

Bishop looked very unhappy. No one likes to hear other possibilities when they've made their life's mission into a crusade to prove just one possibility. "But I'm sure that it was him."

"You physically saw him charge this building up and kill everyone inside?" the Professor interjected, hoping that what Rogue was saying was true.

"Well, no, but—"

"Den how ya know it was me?"

"Because you were standing outside watching it burn!" Bishop tried to lunge at the Cajun.

"He was outside, but he didn' do it!" Rogue said. "He couldn've; right, Etienne?"

"He was takin' me fo' icecream," Etienne pointed out.

Remy felt sick to his stomach. So, now he knew how Rogue would die. Blown up and burned while only a few months pregnant. And all he would be able to do is watch. That shouldn't be how anyone dies, especially the possible mother of his children. He cringed even thinking that, but it was still what he felt.

"No! He did do it!" Bishop railed.

"Bishop," Storm said, trying to be the calm voice of reason. "Is it possible that you have the wrong man? You were mistaken, I am sure. Remy is not the type to brutally murder his friends."

"Yeah," Kitty jumped in, "he didn't like wake up one day and go: 'Someone drank all the orange juice! They all must die!'"

That helped to cut the tension.

"Bishop, if you still have your doubts, why don't you stay on in this time for a while so that we can prove that Gambit did not—or, will not—be the one to destroy this school and everyone in it," Xavier invited the future man.

He didn't look convinced, sending glares at Remy. Bishop agreed to stay, if only to be able to watch Gambit, to prevent him from doing anything in the meantime, and to see when he would go homicidally crazy. "I'll stay. Just to be here when he betrays you."

"He won't," Etienne said simultaneously with his mother.

Remy gave her a pained smirk. It would have been better if his ankle wasn't starting to swell up.

Hank finally noticed that Remy was hurt, and so was Bishop. He had quite a few scrapes, and he seemed to be holding his chest—probably a bruised rib or two. Ororo had fared better in the fall, having caught herself with wind. "Alright, everyone who needs medical attention, come with me. Bishop, if you agree to cease your attack on Remy--" Bishop nodded grudgingly. "—then, Amara, if you would please melt the ice around his middle section. Thank you."

Amara had the ice melted into a puddle in a few seconds. Dr. McCoy led the gimps to the elevator down to the Med. Labs, with Ororo helping Remy. His ankle was about the size of a small grapefruit by that point.

The Professor turned to Rogue. "You said there was a second offender in the Institute someplace?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Ah think Logan oughtta go handle him though. He wants ta kill ya. Had a sawed off rifle, too."

"He probably wanted to make it look like the murder was done by someone in this time period," Charlie said. "Otherwise he would have been using one of the guns from my time. They're a lot scarier."

"I shall take your word for that," Xavier sad. "Logan? If you would?"

"Get right on it," Logan growled, heading off for the stairs to go take care of the minion of Apocalypse. No one ever saw the minion or the sawed off shotgun again, in case you were wondering.

Forge cleared his throat, drawing the attention of those still in the room. "Jeeze, this place is a mess."

"Thank you, Forge," the Professor said dryly. "Do you have some answers for us? Such as, how two more people from the future got here?"

"Actually, I do," the boy answered proudly. "I wrote myself a letter, and I told myself how to fix the time machine."


	12. Gifts and Letters

PRE-AN: I know, I know. You're yelling, I'm sure: "Sheesh! Took ya long enough, chick! What's your prob?" Well, back off, butt-munch! I was having a severe case of creativity drop. I couldn't be creative if my life depended on it. In fact, the only reason I'm back up to writing is because I went home for Thanksgiving break, hung out with my friends, and went to Hot Topic and found some things I'm featuring in this chapter or the next one. I'm sure you'll like.

-Sweety8587: Aw, poor baby. Rogue's gonna miss him, too. I'm going to have a cute, bonding, good-bye chapter…just not this one. Next one, I think. If you have any cute, bonding, good-bye ideas, feel free to tell me. Oh, and it's not exactly "full-circle." It's more of a squiggly line.

-Mourning Star under the Moon: I tried to find your story, but to no avail. Is it on , or on fictionpress?

-Ish: Even if it was your future self that did something, wouldn't you be proud of yourself? That's my logic.

-Amanda (and Lanco Duck) You really were hyper, chick. I think I'll just wing the Summers Affect, if that doesn't get me in too much trouble. I've been winging it so far!

-Panther: I know. (about the mass murderer thing) Of course, there was that whole Morelocks issue…Didn't know if I should say anything or not.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I would just like to thank you all. This story, in only 11 chapters, has broken in reviews what "Eggrolls, Cock, & Things" made in 21 chapters. I feel loved. 

So, where were we? Ah, yes, FORGE JUST CAME IN AND SAID THAT HE WROTE HIMSELF A NOTE ABOUT HOW TO FIX THE TIME MACHINE.

"Actually, I do," the boy answered proudly. "I wrote myself a letter, and I told myself how to fix the time machine."

Rogue's mouth dropped into a deep frown. Had her back not been to her sons, she would have seen that their mouths were doing a pretty good imitation of her own. In fact, the entire room was strangely quiet.

"The problem wasn't with Rogue's possible current choice that was creating the two worlds—Mr. Smarty-Pants," Forge shot at Charlie as he plowed on, heedless of the sudden dampening of moods in the wrecked Rec. Room. "The problem was with the DNA itself. No matter what time the time machine tried to pick up on, Rogue was dead, so it couldn't pick just one. If there were others, then Rogue had had no children, so her DNA stopped with her. As it was, in two of the worlds, she did have kids—those two—so the machine locked onto them, and the rest you know.

"See?" Forge grinned. "I do know my stuff. This guy--" again, Charlie—"had me looking for flaws in the variable buffer, but the issue was with something totally different. Now that I figured it out, I can send them home."

No body said anything for a long minute. A muffled scream drifted into the room, but that was soon forgotten with only a few curious looks from the occupants. ((Remember that minion of Apocalypse that was never seen again?))

"But…" Rogue looked over at the Professor, "they don' hafta go yet do they? Ah mean, they c'n stay 'til tomorrah, right? They don't hafta go back right this second."

"Of course not," Xavier said with a shake of the head. It was obvious that the tree had grown close in so short a time, and he saw no reason to force them apart prematurely. It would be painful for all of them. "Charlie and Etienne can stay until tomorrow."

"But I finally got it fixed!" Forge whined.

"This will give you three the time to say your good-byes," the Prof continued, ignoring Forge's outburst. "Also--"

"Rogue!"

Everyone turned to see Wanda Maximoff walk through the hall, and find her way to the Rec. Room. Needless to say, everyone was then very confused. After confusion came a mild terror at the huge grin that was stretching her face, and the large black Hot Topic bag she was carrying in one hand.

"There you are! Oh look! It's all three of you; this'll be even more fun!"

"Wanda, how did you get in here?" the Professor asked.

She shrugged; "Somebody left the door open."

Scott slapped himself in the forehead while Jean slapped him upside the head from behind. It was stereo slappage. The younger ones couldn't repress a giggle. Wanda, meanwhile, made her way through the wreckage, still grinning away, and stopped just close enough to Charlie to reach out and pinch his cheek, which she then did.

"I have a present," she announce.

"Oh, dear," Rogue said.

Wanda reached into the bag and pulled out a yellow baby jumper with Happy Bunny on it, that read 'Cute But Stinky. Things Even Out.'

"I saw it when I went in, and I laughed so hard," she told Rogue. "Wait, though, there's more!"

The next item to come out of the bag'o'horrors was yet another jumper. This one was gray, with the Nightmare Before Christmas design on the front. The next, and last, thing that Wanda brought out was a doll. Of course, being a Hot Topic doll, this one was scary, had over-done black make-up, and chains were dangling from its tiny clothes. There was a sign on the box that warned of chocking hazards.

"Umm…Thanks?" Rogue said, accepting the gifts. "Can Ah ask why in the world you did this?"

"I found out I have a sibling I'm not ashamed to be seen with, so I wanted to get him a gift. Then I found the jumpers and I had to buy them because I knew it'd freak you out. All in all, a good deal."

"Of course." Rogue nodded. "Makes perfect sense." (For a psycho) she added in her head.

Xavier cleared his throat pointedly. "Wanda, Charlie and Etienne will be leaving soon, and we were all hoping to give them and Rogue a chance to say good-bye."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, a pitiful frown creasing her forehead as she turned to look at Charlie. "You're leaving? Well, damn. Look me up in your universe. I think I'll be able to stand you for more than three seconds at a time, and it would be nice to have someone to bitch with."

Charlie smiled a little. "That'd be nice. I think I will."

Wanda shrugged. "I'd hug you, but I don't hug. And if you ever try, I might have to kill you. I guess this is it, then. Bye. Oh!" She turned back to the Prof. "The dip-shit ((i.e. Pietro)) keeps muttering about next Wednesday, and Principal Kelly's rally for his mayoral candidacy and blah blah blah. What-the-fuck-ever. I usually just ignore him until he says something stupid and I can hex the hell out of him, or until he points me in the direction of things I can hex the hell out of instead of him. Just thought I'd mention it since we have this nice little truce going, and Glasses over there hasn't tried to blast me yet."

"Thank you."

There was that moment of really weird silence after Wanda walked out and the door clinked shut behind her. No one knew quite what to do with that, so mostly they chose to ignore it. Etienne laughed, because he found it hilarious, and then he got smacked in the arm by his mom, so he stopped.

"Can we get back to the topic of me having finally fixed the machine?" Forge asked.

"Yes, Forge," Xavier said, "thank you for getting us back to the original subject. As I was saying, having the rest of the day to say good-bye will give us time to test the machine once again, just to make sure that there are no screw-ups this time."

Forge threw his hands in the air and stomped out.

"Um, we're gonna go…" Kitty thought for a moment, "away. Come on, guys." She did her best to pull the others out of the room, and left Rogue with her boys.

The Professor wheeled out, as well, going to call in the contractors he had on retainer to come and fix the ceiling.

The three of them, alone, didn't know what else to do. They stood in awkward silence now that their time together was almost over. They all had the same thought, but didn't know how to say it out loud: 'This sucks.'

As happens at times like this, Rogue remembered something she'd decided to do while they were still at the mall. Glancing down at her watch to see if she still had time to do it before it got dark, and the hours of countdown started, she was surprised to find that it was only about 3'o'clock. It seemed later for some reason.

"Uh, look guys. There's somethin' Ah need ta do for a lil' bit," she told them, laying the jumpers and the goth doll on the plaster-dusted couch. "Ah'll be back as soon as Ah can, but will y'all be okay for while? Ah'm sorry ta just ditch ya like this, but Ah'll be quick as Ah can, an' then we'll spend the whole rest o' the evenin' togethah—just us."

Neither looked too happy, but they agreed. Rogue gave them an "I'm sorry" face—as close as she could get to an apologetic hug—and went to the elevator. Down she went to the Med Lab, looking for Gambit. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to say, but she was good at improvising.

Inside, Remy sat up high on an exam table as Dr. McCoy bound up his sprained ankle. "Looks like you'll be on crutches for a week or so."

"You serious?" Remy asked.

"This is a pretty bad sprain. I'm honestly surprised that's all it is."

"If it were up to me," Bishop said, "it would be a lot worse, LeBeau; so count yourself lucky that you've survived this meeting at all."

Remy rolled his eyes and would have flipped the drama king off if he hadn't figured that that would be a very bad idea if he wanted to preserve his health. Flippant bad boy he was; stupid he was not.

"Could be worse," Rogue said from the door, drawing the attention of the doctor and his three patients. "Coulda been yo think, stubborn, (radio edit) head that got broke."

Remy's brows hit the ceiling. "What'd I do?! Five minutes ago you were defendin' me, now I get yelled at? How does dat make sense, chere?"

"Upstairs Ah was tryin' ta save ya life so Ah could yell at ya," she said. "See the logic?"

"Not my day," he muttered to himself, "jus' not my damn day."

"B'sides, Ah'm mad at somethin' ya gonna do, an' Ah need ta ask ya a question."

She walked over to the table he sat on and looked him very steadily in the face. She rarely did this, always preferring to skirt his eyes—or his body all together—and focus on the nearest inanimate object when she talked to him. To have Rogue staring straight into his eyes, Remy knew that she was serious about something.

"What do Ah do ta get you ta pay attention ta somethin' if Ah write it down?"

He hadn't really known what to expect, but that sure as hell never entered into his mind as a possibility. "Um…de word 'fuck' written real big across de top? Dat'd prob'ly get mos' people's attention."

"So, a lot of cussin'?" she asked.

"I guess." He shugged one shoulder up and down. "Why?"

"Ah'm writin' ya a lettah…er, Ah'm writin' Etienne's dad a lettah," she amended. "Not quite the same thing."

"No, it's really not, chere," he agreed.

"You're going to try to send a letter across time, and possibly dimensions, to be read by someone, and may possibly alter that person's whole history?" Beast asked, his tone tense.

"Yyyyeahhh." Rogue said. "Why? Is that bad?"

"Could be," Dr. McCoy said. "Good luck, though. It would be interesting if we could find out what happens as a result."

She rolled her eyes. Everything was an experiment to that guy. After a minute, she focused back in on Remy.

"Etienne's goin' home tomorrah mornin'," she told him. "If ya gonna say g'bye, now's the time ta do it."

With that, Rogue exited the Med Lab and went to the library, where she knew it would be nice and secluded. There, she pulled out a piece of paper from the antique writing desk, found a pen in one of the drawers, and began her letter.

"Dear Remy,

"What the FUCK, you little ass-wipe; I oughta come through time and beat the shit out of you!!!"

After that, the words flowed freely. Rogue covered a good three pages before her tirade ended, and then she started on two more letters. These were addressed to Charlie and Etienne, and they each said all of the things that Rogue was thinking, but didn't know how to say out loud. This way, each one would have something of her to take with them, and remember her—the her NOW—when they got back.

The last few lines of each boy's letter had little splotches on them Rogue had tried, ineffectually, to wipe away before they set in.


	13. Almost GoodBye

PRE-A/N: I'm sorry it's taken so long. Finals are killer. My creative brain cells kind of AWOLed on me. (what exactly _does _AWOL stand for?) Anyway, I am currently in the right, minorly depressed, stressed, and emotionally contorted frame of mind to write the good-bye bonding night. I honestly have no idea what these guys are going to do…so it's going to be a surprise for all of us. But, then, I warned you of that when we first started, so don't hate me.

-JustMe: Sorry it took so long. Don't hurt me! In fact, help me. Read chap, read the POST-A/N, and review with suggestions.

Disclaimer: Nothing. Is. Mine. Except the plot. That I own.

CHAPTER 13

Rogue folded the letters up and stuffed them into envelopes that she had written each of the three males who were getting the letter's names on. One for Remy, one for Etienne, and one for Charlie. For a long minute after she was done, she sat at the desk and stared at the three envelopes. She had just gotten those boys yesterday—barely twenty-four hours ago—but she was having a hell of a time thinking about them not being here anymore. She couldn't remember ever knowing anyone who had the same DNA as she did; who was a real family member. For some reason, that made a difference, and the fact that they were leaving was starting to hurt.

Rogue sighed and got to her feet. She picked up the letters and left the library, only to meet up with Remy, hobbling down the hallway on his new crutches. It was not his most graceful moment, but Rogue found herself charmed more now than when he was actually trying to be charming.

"How--" Rogue cleared her throat, still thick from the tears of writing her good-byes. "How ya doin', criple? Got a long way ta go?"

Remy craned his head around to frown at her. "Funny, chere. 'M laughin' m' ass off."

She gave him a smile—or, as much of one as she ever gave anyone. "Sorry. Where ya goin'?"

"As far away from Bishop as I can." He maneuvered around to face Rogue, as well as he could on the crutches. Those things were definitely going to take some getting used to. "He's shootin' me dese death glares—I swear, dey better dan yo's. It's damn uncomfortable."

Her smile widened into a half-grin, a small chuckle gurgling out of her mouth. "A death-glare as good as mine? Well, Ah gotta give him props fo' that."

Remy shook his head and joined in the quiet laughter. And then his stomach gurgled. He hadn't had breakfast—just coffee—and he hadn't gotten lunch, either—he'd been busy falling though a ceiling. "Looks like I'm headin' ta de kitchen. Wanna come?"

"Mmm," Rogue mumbled and shook her head. "Ah gotta go find--"

"Rogue!!!!"

"Nevah mind."

Etienne and Charlie ran toward her from down the hallway, very against the rules of the Institute. They looked strangely excited. Not exactly what Rogue would have expected them to be when she left them earlier in the ruined Rec. Room. Etienne reached her first and shot a smug look over his shoulder at more reserved Charlie, who narrowed his eyes at the younger boy, mentally promising a slow death.

"We were down in the Danger Room, talking to Forge, and we found something out," Charlie said before Etienne got a chance. He gave his younger half-brother a look that said, quite clearly, _See whatcha get, punk?_

"O…kay," Rogue said. "Ya gonna tell me what he said?"

"Part o' the note he sent 'imself said dat if two people have the same genetic line den dey cain't hurt each othah with dey powers," Ettie rushed on ahead of Charlie. "Called it the Summers Affect."

"So, because of the close genetic tie that _we _have—"

"Our powers cancel out!" Etienne finished up.

"We even tested it," Charlie assured her, grinning. "See?"

He smacked Etienne upside the head. The younger boy shouted, "Hey!" and turned to glare at him.

"And since his DNA prevents him from being able to harm me, he can't use his powers to enhance the kinetic force I applied to his head, so he can't do anything about what I just did," Charlie explained.

"Oh, I bet I could do _somethin_'," Etienne grumbled.

"Stop fightin', you two."

Remy cleared his throat loudly. "Um, I'm gonna…" He tilted his chin in the direction of the stairs.

"Fine," Rogue said with a shrug. "Take it easy, gimpy."

"You jus' wait 'til _yo_ de one on crutches, chere; den we see who's bein' funny," he promised.

Rogue rolled her eyes and turned back to the younger two males in the hallway. "Y'all were sayin'?"

"Yeah." Etienne grinned. "This."

Before she could blink, he stuck out his finger and poked her in the forehead.

"Hey!"

Rogue tried to back up and swat his hand away, but Ettie was quicker and moved with her, keeping his index finger firmly planted between her eyes. It took her several panicky seconds to realize that she wasn't absorbing him, and she went still. There was no pull, no look of shocked anguish on his face, and no rushing buzz in her mind that accompanied her powers. There was nothing; a complete null.

"Hey…"

She used her previously pushing hands to press Etienne's whole hand against her cheek. Still nothing. A grin trudged up to her mouth from somewhere in the basement of her psyche. She turned quickly to Charlie and reached out for him. A smile came from him to meet hers as he took the remaining two steps to her side. Rogue grabbed his hand and pulled it up to her other cheek. Nothing. She could touch these two and her powers weren't even an issue. That was enough to get even the most misanthropic goth to break down.

"Hey, look," Etienne said. "It really _did_ work. Go, Forge…for once."

"What are those?" Charlie asked, meaning the enveloped letters that Rogue still had in her left hand, pressing his hand to her face.

"Hm? Oh!" Rogue sniffed. "Notes. One for you, one for Etienne."

"There are three," Etienne said.

"Good job, Captain Obvious; let us know when General Information gets here," Charlie mocked him.

Rogue smirked to see Etienne's annoyed expression at Charlie's words.

"The third one's fo' Ettie's fathah. Ah needed ta say some things."

"Ya yellin' at 'im again, aren'tcha?"

"Only a little," Rogue admitted.

"So," Charlie jumped in, not enjoying not being included in their conversation, "what are we going to do as, you know, our last night together?"

"That could sound so sexual if we weren' family," Etienne observed. He grinned and thickened his accent, "'Course, we are from de deep Sout', non?"

Rogue shook her head, taking their hands with her. "Gawd, ya so damn nasty." She took a deep breath and let Etienne and Charlie's hands drop. "Ah don' know what ta do, honestly." She took her gloves off, with great relief, and not a little nervousness. "We could have a movie night. Or Ah could take ya ta the nearest club that's havin' a Goth night. Or we could go ta the kitchen and raid the fridge and pantry, snack until we go inta a sugah coma, and talk."

"That last one's kind of a chick thing," Etienne said. "Not really my speed."

Charlie nodded his agreement.

"Well, those are ya choices, unless y'all c'n think o' somethin' bettah," Rogue said.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$

POST-A/N: Well, you heard her. If you can give me some ideas as to what they could do as their last family night. Seriously, I just could not think of a thing to do. Anything good, I mean. HELP! I call for your aid.


	14. Movie Night

**Rogue's Sons **

**Ch. 14 of 15**

**Yes, the long awaited ending. This fic has by far the most reviews of any that I have written to date. I'm sorry it took me so long to complete, but I got out of the voice, and it took me a while to want to come back to it. Blame Hemmingway. **

**&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&**

Rogue and the boys ended up staying in. Logan reminded them that there was always a chance of something explosive and mutant-powered happening in Bayville, and why draw that much attention? This being a good point, they opted for a movie marathon. Etienne flopped down on the couch in the Rec. Room—slightly messy still, but most of the ceiling plaster was cleaned up. Charlie looked through the DVD selection and tried to find something to watch.

Kitty grabbed the camcorder and phased it into the wall to catch the bonding. She knew Rogue would want it later. She was just thinking ahead. It's what friends did, right?

Remy slouched outside the door on his crutches while he listened to Etienne and Charlie bicker about whether they should watch _Captain Blood_ or _Happy Gilmore_ first

"It's a classic!" Charlie defended. "Pirates, and swordfights, and rising against an oppressive social and governmental dictator. _Captain Blood_."

"Playin' golf with a hockey stick, a man-eatin' alligator, an' Adam Sandler style hijinks. _Happy Gilmore_."

"Boys! Ah swear ta gawd!" Rogue snapped to hide her amusement. "Go sit down. We're watchin' _Donnie Darko_."

"Awww," they groaned.

Rogue shook her head. She was scared by how easy it was to be who they wanted her to be. How easy it was to love them. She just met them, and they were already influencing how she thought and acted. She wondered if their influence would continue after they left.

After they left….

"Come on, you two. Ya leavin' tomorrah. Just, let's watch my movie, then we'll watch _Captain Blood_, then we'll watch _Happy Gilmore_."

They sat chastised and quiet until Etienne asked, "How come we're watchin' his movie first?"

"He's the oldest."

"Well, that's not fair," he grumbled at Charlie's smug grin.

"You get to pick the snacks," she compromised.

Etienne smirked at his half-brother and jumped up from the couch. "Ha! She loves me best. Don' be surprised if ya end up wit' food poisonin'."

"Ah love ya both equally," Rogue called at his back as the fourteen-year-old ran out of the room in the direction of the kitchen. "Ah just happen ta like one of ya more than the othah."

Charlie chuckled and reached for her—ungloved—hand. "Don't worry. I won't tell him I'm your favorite."

Rogue laughed as she plopped down on the couch next to him. "Ah think Ah just understand ya better. Ya like me—more…sedate. That boy's like ta run a body ragged."

Charlie nodded. "Let's hope he was kidding about the food poisoning."

She groaned a half-chuckle. "Let's hope."

Etienne loaded up on popcorn, chips, Mt. Dew, M&M's, and somehow managed to break into Bobby's "secret" candy bar stash to provide Butterfingers, Snickers, Baby Ruth's, and Heath bars. He grabbed Ho-Ho's and Snowballs, Oreos, and Twinkies. He also brought hot sauce, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and ranch dressing. "Better than dip," he explained.

Rogue put the DVD in, and turned down the lights to make it like a movie theater—and because the glare of the table lamps always pissed her off. (Xavier had bukoo money from who-knows-where, and he couldn't afford a glare-proof screen?) And lastly, Rogue eagerly pulled off her wrap to leave her in only a tank top, her arms bare to freely touch the only two people her power couldn't hurt.

"Whoa, now, Mom!" Ettie teased. "Ya gonna give us an Oedipus complex, here."

He was thusly beaten with throw pillows.

During the roughly six hours that the three of them watched videos more damage was done to the Rec. Room than when Remy and Bishop fell through from the floor above. Mt. Dew flowed like water. The teriyaki sauce was spilled on the cushions. And a lot of popcorn was thrown at Etienne for idiot comments, although Charlie got a Twinkie to the head for one particularly snarky remark. Rogue couldn't even argue. She'd been tempted to Twinkie him herself.

After _Happy Gilmore_, they chose _Dogma_, and then another movie, and then another, although they were only half watching at that point. Most of their attention was taken up slapping at each other and the boy's trying to climb over Rogue to inflict sibling abuse—a flimsy excuse for everyone getting the physical contact that they were so often denied. Etienne made further comments about complexes and incest, but they all knew that wasn't what this was about. The strength of their need to touch one another, skin to skin, was the need of wolves to sleep in piles, or lions to scent mark one another, or a mother to run her hands over her newborn. It was calming. It was bonding. It was a compulsion that they themselves didn't entirely understand except that if they didn't they would drive themselves crazy.

The rest of the students of the Institute avoided the Rec. Room in a show of unaccountable maturity and understanding. Well, they avoided it for about the first eight hours, but after so long with not much else to do, they went to watch the three family members. Kitty had to change the memory cartridge in the digital video camera after a while. She took the first one up to her computer to start editing. She had a title and theme song all picked out.

It was long into the night, having given up on feature length pictures, and resorted to flipping through channels, that Rogue realized the boys had crashed from their sugar highs. They were nearly asleep with their heads sharing her lap, one head per leg. Etienne had put a pillow on her lap around midnight to lay his head on. Charlie eventually claimed a portion after Etienne was quiet for a while. Both of them had their legs hanging off the arm rests.

This was actually the first time that Rogue had to study the two of them at ease. She smiled down at them, and brushed her knuckles over their cheeks before eeny-meeny-miny-moing her choice on whom to start with.

She traced Charlie's features with the softest strokes of her fingertips. Over his brows, down his nose, across his cheekbones, along his jaw to his chin. She went back up to his forehead to smooth away worry creases that formed at the seldom-felt sensation of touch. He really was more her than Ettie was. Charlie had her frown, her skepticism—one might say distrust—and her sulkiness. Rogue internally shook her head at how easy it was to accept when she saw it in him, but how she shied away from her faults when others pointed it out to her.

Charlie was shaping up to be a good man. She sincerely hoped that he would have a chance to prove to those in his time and universe how good a man he could be. Rogue had always understood, if not stood with Magneto's desire to make the world safe for mutants by showing that they were powerful enough to stand up for themselves. She hated bullies herself, and knew that what they usually needed was to get their asses knocked out before they left you alone. Magneto, however, took it too far, and he didn't care who got hurt in the process. Rogue knew she didn't have the clarity of conviction—at least not yet—to find her own way, but she could not hold with ends justifying whatever the means. Maybe Charlie would be able to take his father's conviction and her care for others, and turn it into something stronger than what either had alone. He would make an amazing leader for the humans and mutants he was trying to save from Apocalypse. If he lived long enough.

Rogue leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead. Charlie muttered in his sleep. She shushed him, and waited until he was quiet again.

Etienne was frighteningly Remy. Still, there was something in the nose that was more her. It was scary to contemplate a possible future for herself with the Cajun when she was only just beginning to let herself like him. What was even worse was the little voice in her head wondering if getting Ettie wasn't reason enough to let the swamp rat closer. Dangerous thoughts, these.

She ran her fingers through Etienne's thick hair and smiled when he tried to curl towards her. Technically he was only three years her junior, but he seemed so young to Rogue. Maybe that was just her impression from sitting where she was. She smoothed his hair away from his face. His eyes were closed, and she brushed her thumb across his lashes. Feathery soft. Her hand caressed his cheek, and no, he had no need to shave yet.

So much for all that testosterone, Remy, she thought. Let this one stay a baby a little while longer. Her boys shouldn't have had to grow up so fast, and they sure as hell shouldn't have had to grow up without her. After all this time, she would have thought she'd fully accepted how unfair the world was, but it proved to be a bigger bitch than even Rogue had given it credit for being.

She rubbed away the tears that sprang up, not bothering to mind her mascara and eyeliner, and gulped down a calming breath. Rogue gently shook the boy's shoulders. "Come on, you two. Time fo' good little boys to go to their own beds."

Charlie jerked into wakefulness and looked like he was reaching for something to hit someone with before he realized where he was. Etienne groaned and tried to burry his face further in the pillow. She shook him again.

"Come on, Ettie. Up ya go."

"Ah c'n sleep here," he grumbled.

"Ya folded up like a taco. That' cain't be comfortable."

"Ah'm okay."

"No," Rogue insisted. "Ya goin' ta bed."

Once Charlie was on his feet, Rogue slid out from under Etienne's head. He whined at the change in position, but made no move to get up. Charlie yanked the pillow away from the younger boy's head, and whacked him with it.

"If we were attacked right now, you would be dead," he pointed out.

"If we were attacked right now, it'd be really loud, an' then Ah'd get up." Etienne scowled as he lurched into a seated position. Rogue had to smile. That was one other way he was like her, she saw. Etienne didn't like being woken up.

Logan and Ororo stood at the door and watched Rogue get both of her future son's to their feet. Logan snorted. "Who'd'a thought?"

"Mm," Ororo murmured in agreement. "She's very good at this. I feel as if I would be offensive I said that it comes as a surprise, but…."

He glanced over his shoulder at the weather witch. "Hey, I said it first. You're just agreeing." He looked back at the trio headed toward them. "So much for Rogue being a junior badass."

"Logan," Ororo scolded quietly as the three reached the door.

Rogue ushered the boys out before her, and turned to the two teachers. "Sorry about the disastah area in there. Ah'll clean it up tomorrah."

"It's fine, Rogue," Ororo assured her.

The girl nodded, and continued to prod Charlie and Etienne toward the stairs. Charlie was a bit more awake, and he trudged ahead. Etienne needed constant pushing or he was liable to prop himself up against a wall and doze back off. Rogue grabbed his arm and steered him in the right direction.

"Wish ya could carry me," Ettie mumbled.

"Ya practically tallah than Ah am," Rogue pointed out.

"That's what I mean. Wish I was little again, so ya could carry me."

Logan couldn't explain his actions when Ororo asked later, but he called to Rogue, "Hey, stripes."

They paused on the fourth step, and she looked down, brows raised in question.

Wolverine extended a paw with a nod. "Go ahead."

Rogue looked down in surprise. "Are—"

"Wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it."

Rogue granted him a thankful little smile as she reached out and brushed his palm with two fingers—just enough to gain a little extra strength without too much of an after-effect for either of them. Then she turned to Etienne and scooped him up like a baby.

He grunted in surprise. "Not exactly what I meant."

Charlie turned back to look, and frowned. "Why does he get carried?"

"Because he's the baby," Rogue said. "Now, go. He ain't exactly feathah light."

It was tricky going up those stairs with a body that was as tall and weighed as much as she did in her arms, but somehow they made it. Rogue was glad that everyone else was asleep, or at least not out in the halls to see her. She would surely never live this down.

While Charlie untied his shoes and put them beside the edge of his borrowed bed, Rogue laid Etienne in his, and straightened his blankets before she pulled them over his shoulders. Ettie automatically rolled on his side and moved to the edge of the bed. Charlie pulled the blankets up to his chest, and threw one arm over his head to clutch the top of his pillow as if he were afraid someone would do to him what he did to Etienne downstairs and pull it away.

"Night, Charlie," Rogue said, and couldn't stop her hand from stroking his face.

"Night," he mumbled.

"Night, Ettie," she leaned down to whisper to Etienne.

"Nigh, Mmm," he sighed.

"Good night, Etienne," Charlie added.

He got no answer. Etienne was out cold.

"Night, John-boy," Rogue and Charlie said together. Charlie cracked an eye open and shared a smile with her. He rubbed his nose, and settled into his pillow.

Rogue stepped from between the twin beds and walked to the door. She stopped outside, and closed the door, leaving a space to look through. She sunk to a new level of pathetic as she stood there watching them sleep. Rogue finally tore herself away and walked half-way down the hall, but had to turn around and go back.

_They'ah big boys. They don't need ya leave the door open a crack!_ she yelled at herself.

After she closed their door all the way, Rogue continued down the hall headed for the girls' wing. She wasn't even surprised to see Remy lounging against a wall halfway between, his crutches by his side. Rogue sighed. "Not sure whether Ah'm ready ta talk to ya yet."

"Just wonderin' how things are goin' for ya, chere. Ya two shadow's asleep."

She nodded, and leaned back against the opposite wall. "It's weird. Ah figured if Ah eveh had kids, Ah'd be one'a them women who had no maternal instincts. Ah never even had dolls as a kid. Ah was such a tomboy. Ah always wanted to go play flag football, or baseball, or ride bikes instead of play Barbie's or house."

"Guess it's a good t'ing you end up havin' boys den," he tried to joke. It fell far short. "Look…ya not doin' a bad job. An' I'm not meanin' that like…." He waved his hands as if the picture they made would explain better than he could. He cleared his throat. "It's kinda surprisin', actually. You bein' so motherly. Ya usually doan' let people wit'in three feet of ya."

"Ah was never meant to be so cold," she murmured. She rubbed her hands over her arms, belatedly realizing that she was still in just a tank top. It was odd to encounter skin when she usually met fabric. "Music and fashion choices aside, Ah never wanted to be so alone."

Remy pushed away from the wall. "Ya not—"

Rogue retreated. "Ah can't do this right now."

He stilled. It wasn't something he was ready to get into at the moment, either, but he didn't want to see her sad. He knew if he pushed, she'd run, so he backed off. Remy leaned back against the wall.

"Ya look tired yaself, cherie. Prob'ly better be gettin' to bed."

Rogue waited.

"What? No innuendoes about whose bed it should be?"

"No' tonight."

"Is Dr. McCoy sure ya didn' hit ya head when ya fell through the floor?"

He smirked. "If ya really wan' me to, 'm sure dis smutty mind could t'ink of somethin'."

Rogue chuckled and shook her head. "No, thanks. Ah'll see ya in mornin'."

"G'night, ma chere."

When Rogue got back to her room, she crawled into bed, but refused to cry just yet. She had them for a few more hours, at least.

&&&

Remy waited until he heard Rogue's door close before he hobbled his way to Kitty's room. He could hear typing, clicking, and music playing loud through headphones, so he knew she was still awake. He knocked on the door partly because he was being polite, and partly because it would be really hard to open it with the crutches. A second later, the door opened, and Kitty started in surprise (and in bunny slippers, he noted).

"Hey, petite. C'n I ask a favor?"

Kitty crossed her arms, and settled her weight on one foot. "Depends what the favor is. Is it going to get me in like massive mondo trouble with the teachers, or send someone on the path to kill me? Particularly a certain Goth I am semi-chummy with?"

"Ya no' goan get in trouble wit' no one. M'word of honor."

"I thought there was like no honor amongst thieves."

He could see she was fighting a smile. She was no good a bluffing; it was obvious she was just jerking him around until she felt good and ready to agree to help.

"M'word as an X-Man. How's dat?"

"Good enough." She sighed theatrically, and moved out of the door way to let him in. She didn't close the door, though. Strict house rules. "What can I help you with?"

Remy balanced on his good foot, and pulled a picture out of his back pocket. "C'n ya scan dat fo' me an' print me a copy?"

Kitty took the photo and looked at it. "Oh. Aw! You guys look totally adorable!" She smirked up at Remy. "Uh-huh!"

He squirmed a little—not much. It wouldn't become a master thief to squirm under pressure. "I jes wan' it to…remind myself."

"What you're working toward?" Kitty teased as she went to her scanner.

"Would'ja jes print me de damn picture?"

Had Kitty a tail, it would have been wagging at that point. She scanned the picture, sent it to her digital photo printer, and had a copy for him in about three minutes.

"Here you go!" She handed both copies back to him. "Don't worry. If you mess that one up by taking it out to look at it like every day, I saved it, so I can print another. And another, and another, and another…."

"Bon noir, Kitty," Remy told her as he quickly left the room to the sound of her giggles.

A few moments later, sans crutches, he snuck into the time travelers' room, and replaced the original photo in Etienne's wallet. The boy muttered in his sleep, and shifted around, but he didn't wake up. Honestly, was no one teaching this kid anything in his time?


	15. GoodbyeHello

**Rogue's Sons 15**

Rogue once again stood in the Danger Room surrounded by Forge's equipment. This time, the Professor, the three teachers, Kitty, Piotr, Tabitha (strangely), Jean, Scott, and Remy stood at the side of the room. Bishop was helping Forge put the last repairs on his accidental time machine.

Etienne and Charlie stood in the center with her. All three had been quiet over breakfast except for Rogue insisting that they eat something. It felt wrong to send them back to their times on an empty stomach. Who knew if Etienne would eat regularly if left to his own devices? And Charlie probably wouldn't get to see real food again for months, if not longer, if what he said about its scarcity was true. One of Rogue's inner monologue voices—the one that liked big boots, spiked chokers, and chainmail—rolled its metaphoric eyes and scoffed at Rogue suddenly becoming the nurturing earth mother. The voice felt that she should be shot before she did anything else humiliating.

Rogue gritted her teeth and turned to Forge. "Is this gonna work."

"I'm 99.325 percent sure, yes."

"Point three two fahve! Not even point nine? That doesn' instill confidence in me."

The genius looked up from one of the circuit boards. "Look at it this way, there's a chance you'll get to keep them."

Rogue didn't have anything to say to that since part of her wished she could. She turned back to the boys and shrugged. "Here's hopin' he don't end up scramblin' your DNA so one of ya comes out a tortoise, and the other a woman."

"Well, we know who de woman would end up bein'" Etienne said.

"Please, ankle-biter," Charlie quipped. "I could fold you in half and toss you across the room."

"Ha! Not a chance, dipwad."

"Boys!" Rogue sighed. Secretly, she was really going to miss that.

Etienne seemed to read her mind. He grinned, and put an arm around her shoulders. "We gotta get our bickerin' in now, b'fo it's too late."

"Ah know."

"Hey, Ettie!" Tabitha called across the room. "You totally have to give me a call when you get home! We'll do the younger man/older woman thing. It'll be hot!"

Etienne laughed and signaled her with the "I'll call you" gesture. Rogue and Charlie shook their heads. How were they related to that?

Kitty stepped forward with an old Polaroid and her digital camera at the ready, and said, "Okay. I need a picture for my web page, and I figured you two would want one, so like the Prof lent me this. Line up."

Etienne hopped over to Rogue's left, and Charlie stepped forward on her right. Rogue shook her head like she thought this was a stupid idea, but she wanted something to remember them by, so she didn't tell Kitty to stop. She looped her arms over their shoulders—harder with Charlie since he was taller than her—and waited for the set-up. Etienne put his arm around her waist, and Charlie hooked his arm across her back and rested his hand on her opposite shoulder.

Kitty raised the Polaroid first. "Alright, on the count of three. One…two…oh, wait! Who wants the first one, anyway?"

Everyone groaned, but Ettie put his hand up. "I do!"

"Okay, I'm ready this time, I swear," Kitty promised. "One…two—"

Etienne leaned his head down on Rogue's shoulder. Charlie held up bunny ears on him.

"Three!"

The camera flashed, and the assembled X-Men were left blinking at the bright spots in front of their eyes. Charlie's picture with Etienne crossing his eyes. Kitty pulled the picture out, fanned it a bit, and handed them to their owners.

"Alright, now for the one for me." Kitty put the Polaroid aside and lifted her digital camera.

Etienne looked over his mom's head and caught Charlie's eye. "Hey. In yo' universe, did Mom evah have a tendency to come up behind ya an'…"

Charlie knew exactly what he meant. "Yeah, she did."

Kitty drew out her two, and before she got to three, Etienne shouted, "I got her feet!"

Rogue barely had time to squeal, "Don't!" before the boys lifted her off parallel to the floor, Charlie holding her under the arms and Etienne holding her at the knees. Kitty managed to snap Rogue's face before she had a chance to wipe the surprised gape off her face.

As soon as she was on her feet again, Rogue grabbed the two boys by their collars and pulled them forward. "Just f' that, neithah of ya are evah gettin' born!"

"It was his idea!"

"You went along wit' it, brah!"

A loud whistle cut them off. "Hey!"

They turned around to look at Forge. "What?"

"Uh, the time machine's ready. Thought you'd like to know. But if you want to keep squabbling, go right on ahead with that."

Oh. The squabbling stopped. Rogue rotated her shoulders. She wanted to say goodbye in a slightly less public way, but the odds of the audience leaving was small. She shifted her weight back and forth a few times before saying, "Ya have ya lettah's, right? An' ya didn' read 'em yet? That would kinda ruin the effect Ah was goin' for."

"Got it," Charlie said, "and no, I haven't read it yet."

"Got mine, an' de one f' my Dad."

"Good. Uh…." She shrugged. "Okay, well…aw, ta hell with it."

Rogue wrapped her arms around Charlie's neck. "Remembah ta get in touch with Wanda when ya get home. Ah got no doubt that if the two of ya team up, there's nothin' Magneto or Pietro could do ta stop ya. Hell, ya might give Apocalypse a run f' his money."

Charlie chuckled, and fought off the stinging in his eyes. "I'll remember. You remember what I said, too. You're great at this."

She nodded against his shoulder. She squeezed tight once, and let him go to move over to Ettie. He actually lifted her off her feet for a minute when he got his hug. Rogue let him hear her quiet laugh. She didn't want anyone else to hear it.

"Ya might be worth puttin' up with the Cajun for," she admitted.

Etienne looked across the room and gave Remy a grin and a thumbs-up.

Rogue gently smacked the back of his head. "Ah felt you do that."

"Sorry, ma'am."

She stepped back, and ran a hand over his hair. "Be careful when ya get back. Use some a' the sense Ah know ya got from me. An' if ya wanna get his attention," she inclined her head back to where Remy was standing, "Ah've found violence works best. Jus' walk up an' hit him. You can tell 'im Ah said ya could."

Etienne laughed, but it was only half funny.

Rogue looked back and forth between the two, and stepped into the genetic-lock arch. Charlie and Etienne looked at one another. They did that one-armed boy-hug and moved to where their respective vortices would be. Forge flipped the switch. A loud hum filled the Danger Room, and once again, the lights flickered. In a moment, the two portals opened back up. After checking to make sure they were each going into the right one, the boys turned back to wave one last time, and walked back to their times and dimensions.

There was a great terrible silence.

There was a great terrible noise.

There was a great terrible silence.

Rogue's knees wouldn't hold her, so she sat down. She spent a minute just trying to breathe past her constricted throat.

The Professor rolled forward followed by Logan and Ororo. "Rogue?"

She lifted a hand to ask for a second. "Ah…. It doesn' look like Ah'm gonna have a very long life. Ah mean, if there'd been even one possibility that Ah'd live ta see…but there wasn'. An' Ah haven't dealt with that yet, so don't ask how Ah feel about it.

"But, when my powers first showed up, an' Ah had ta think about what that meant f'the rest of my life, it hurt to realize Ah'd never have the things normal girls would. Ah realized goin' ta prom was probably not gonna happen, forget marriage an' kids, or sex of any kind unless it was really fuckin' kinky."

Professor Xavior and Ororo winced. Logan chuckled. He didn't see why the other two didn't find it funny.

"Anyway," Rogue finished, "now Ah guess there's a possibility. A small one, but it's there. It would mean dyin' on 'em, though. Gawd, who'd'a thought hope hurts?"

"Rogue," the Prof said. "Your life is your own. Every choice you make determines your fate. Don't make those choices based on what might be. Live your life by what you think and feel is right. No matter what that means."

"Ah think Ah just wanna be alone for a while."

"That's fine, Rogue. We'll make sure no one bothers you until you're ready."

"Thanks, Professah."

Rogue didn't look at anyone as she exited the Danger Room and went to her room. She collapsed onto her bed, and finally let herself cry.

&&&

Late that night, Rogue came down to the kitchen for something to eat. She had ignored her stomach too long, and it was making her pay. And, just her luck, who was already in the kitchen getting a midnight snack but Gimpy LeBeau himself. Perfect.

"'Lo, chere."

"Hey."

He had leftover pot roast in front of him, and was making a sandwich. "Want some?"

She hesitated, then shrugged. "Sure."

Rogue pulled out the chair opposite him, grabbed a few slices of bread from the bag, and waited until he was finished with the knife then cut a few slices of roast. They traded nothing-remarks about passing lettuce and tomatoes and condiments for a few minutes until both had their sandwiches. When Rogue went for a drink, she asked Remy if he wanted one while she was up. He opted for something carbonated—whatever was in the fridge. Rogue brought him a Sprite, and she had water.

They ate in relative silence. It wasn't much, but it was a beginning.


	16. The Letter to Remy

Dear Remy,

What the FUCK, you little ass-wipe; I ought to come through time and beat the shit out of you!!! How dare you ignore your son? I'm not there to take care of the both of you, so you need to step up, not go weepy and pissy and ignore Etienne. You obviously haven't grown up a bit, have you? Why do I even marry you? You're making me seriously think about killing your younger self, or at least beating you into an impotent pulp.

Etienne's so sweet, but he doesn't always think. He needs you to tell him what he can't do if he wants to see adulthood. From what he told me, you're still doing the mourning thing. You can't get over that I died. That's sort of flattering, but you have got to get over it! You can be sad, but don't you dare keep Etienne as second to your grief. Your son is alive. He needs you. I'm gone there, and I don't. I know that sounds horrible, but you always bring out the bitch in me, have you noticed? I'm sorry if that sounds cruel.

He hasn't told me much. Ettie, that is. That whole time continuum thing. But if he's here, he's already screwed with it, so has it changed for me already? I don't know how all this works, but I know that it's probably a good thing that I don't know too much. And I realize that on your end this is going to sound cold, but just remember that on my end, I'm still not even sure you're worth the headache much less the heartache that's sure to come along with getting involved with you. How do I know there will be heartache if Etienne hasn't said anything? Oh, call it a hunch. You got "Bad News" written over your head in three foot high, blinking neon colors and warning signs for miles ahead of you.

I'm going to step outside myself for a minute here and try to be the me you remember. I'm going to try to think of myself as a grown woman. The woman who loved you, married you, had a son with you. What would I say to you then?

Dear Remy,

You can't do this anymore. You can't keep hurting yourself. Stop it. It wasn't your fault. I know that as sure as I know anything. I know you didn't do what they're accusing you of, and you should know that you have nothing to prove. Not to me. And you shouldn't need to prove your innocence to anyone else. They're looking for a scapegoat, and you're giving them one. Use that brain I know you got in there.

And don't go thinking you should have been there. I'm glad you weren't. I'm so glad you took Etienne away. I'm so glad that my little boy wasn't killed when I was. I'm so glad that he has one parent left, but you need to start acting like it, LeBeau. You need to start acting like the father you are.

This is my me talking now, not your me: Get over it, swamp rat. Because if you don't, I'm having Forge open that portal again, I'm coming through time, and I'm going to geld you. I mean it. Hell, I'll bring Logan with me and he will hold your lazy ass down.

-Rogue


End file.
